Medecins Sans Frontieres "Text a coffin away"

Every year, 5 million children die due to malnutrition. However, they don't hear or read about it because it happens every day. This is a forgotten catastrophe with no news value. The brief: Put malnutrition on the agenda, make people contribute and strengthen the brand of Médecins Sans Frontièrs in Sweden. Since people tend to close their eyes and ears when they see or hear about starving children, they needed something different. During one week over 1,300 child coffins were spread around Stockholm. Every coffin had the message "Save a life, text a coffin away". As part of the campaign, child coffins containing information on malnutrition were sent to news stations, delivered straight to the editor-in-chiefs. The campaign kicked off with a silent march through Stockholm made by the employees at MSF (everyone carrying a coffin), that way they gathered the whole organisation. The march ended up at a huge coffin pile, in the middle of Stockholm's shopping and financial district, where an informal press conference was held. As people donated money with their cell phones, the coffins were removed from the streets one by one. The people of Stockholm could literally see that they were saving lives. The campaign got over 15 minutes of tv-time. In September, 164 articles about MSF were published (compared to a monthly average of 66,5). Over 80,000 euros were donated. The face-to-face donations increased with 25 percent (results last year went down). The long-term results will be very positive. Silver Direct Lions Winner.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Stockholm, Sweden.