UNICEF #BeTheGoodNews

/TVC /integrated

The last few years have been a cascade of bad news. It feels as if we are moving from crisis to crisis, catastrophe to catastrophe, overwhelming people who no longer know how to deal with all the suffering around them.

Meanwhile, The Horn of Africa is facing the biggest food crisis of the last 40 years. Due to external factors (Climate crisis, War in Ukraine) – millions of children are in danger of death. How can we communicate an age-old problem, using minimum budget and only UNICEF footage?

THE IDEA:

The only way to stop bad news is to take action against them, no matter how small. So, this Christmas, UNICEF gives everyone an opportunity:
IN A WORLD FULL OF BAD NEWS, BE THE GOOD NEWS.
Thus we turn every negative touchpoint to a call to action, and an opportunity to be the good news – by donating. 

25 countries

that adopted the platform and translated the TVC in Phase 1.

95 countries

that adopted the TVC for their market in the next year.

For Ukraine

The campaign TVC was repurposed for the Ukrainian children’s hunger campaign after the Russian invasion.

Donations

turnover was the highest fo all UNICEF Christmas campaign
after the COVID-19 pandemic.

For us:

Working on an UNICEF campaign meant having the rare chance in my advertising carreer to put a good message out into the world.
It meant that I get to keep up the NGO work that I love doing, while also seeing the message “In a world full of bad news, be the good news.” produced from the first visual solution until the last animated banner.
What was important to me was that the concept was strong and versatile enough to form a platform that would carry Unicef campaigns longterm and work with different topics. 
Ultimately, our little TVC was taken over by all the major UNICEF offices and ultimately used again for the campaign against the hunger crisis in Ukraine.

BEYOND THE TVC:

The campaign extended further than just a TVC, here are a few other touchpoints we created.

THE ACTIVATION:

True to the spirit of the campaign we hijacking flash news reports on YouTube. By interrupting the news tickers with heart-breaking headlines, we reminded people that where ever there is a bad headline, there’s always the possibility to become the good news – beyond numbers, statistics and death tolls. We can be the good news for a hungry child, today.

Over the years:

Be the good news became an UNICEF Deutschland platform. A message for children of the world that are currently suffering of malnourishment and need our immediate support. Our message was adapted at the start of the Ukrainian war, for every suffering African country and will soon be added to the support of Palestinian children. 
Because in a world full of bad news, it’s up to us to be the good news. 

Credits:

Sr. AD/ Kay Owe
Sr. CW/ Mat Owen
CW/ Paris Nikiforakis 
AD/ Ioana Mar
AD/ Morten Marmulla

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