Role: Concept / Copy / Project management
The brief:
Brother’s for Life, a South African NGO, wanted to create an impact on World Aids Day with only a teeny tiny budget.
The insight:
In 2012, Aids killed 1000 South Africans every single day. Those kind of numbers are so big and unimaginable (resulting in a desensitised public) that we decided to put a face on the statistic.
The idea:
We decided to tap into the relatively new, but increasingly popular Twitter, and its very politically motivated followers - creating 1000 Twitter accounts on the eve of World Aids Day. Each account tweeted hourly for 24 hours, signing off with our hashtag #HIVarmy. The messages were from one united voice, an HIV positive sufferer, speaking candidly and emotionally. At midnight, each and every account died, ending with a message from Brother’s for Life about Aids prevention.
The campaign attracted both national and international interest and trended worldwide before lunchtime, with visits to local clinics and hospitals to get tested skyrocketing afterwards.