Yesterday (Sunday 21st September 2014) Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world, got involved in spreading the word of amity through their new campaign, “Shoot Goals, Not Guns” for the International Day of Peace. Millions of people around the world participated in the annual 24 hour calling for non-violence. In one of Shanghai’s public places Ogilvy & Mather had set-up a foosball table with powerful leaders as the figures.
The annual 24 hour calling for non-violence, “Shoot Goals, Not Guns.”
Millions of people around the world participate in the International Day of Peace, an annual 24 hour calling for non-violence and an international cease fire. Last year, 470 million people across 200 countries participated in this global event through the efforts of non-profit organization, Peace One Day. But awareness in China remains low, so Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai decided to get involved in spreading the word of amity through their new campaign, “Shoot Goals, Not Guns.”
In order to draw more people into conversations about the significance of September 21, figurines on a foosball table were replaced with 22 handcrafted replicas of iconic, powerful leaders. Well-known faces like Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Aung San Suu Kyi and Barack Obama were all seen together, symbolically playing on a single pitch.
The creation was toted around Shanghai’s public places: from the iconic Bund to quieter cafeteria corners. Passersby from all walks of life were encouraged to join in and whack the ball around, creating a memorable moment that got the public talking about Peace One Day and gained momentum through websites, blogs and China’s active online community.
Shoot Goals, Not Guns
Graham Fink, Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather, China said “The International Day of Peace is about stopping violence on all scales, from common schoolyard bullying to the grand scale tragedies ruining lives of millions. ‘Shoot Goals, Not Guns’ is our small way to spark dialogues in China about universal peace and hopefully sow seeds for greater, positive change.”
Through “Shoot Goals, Not Guns,” and the work of others, the important first step of International Peace Day awareness in China continues to grow in scope.
What we say can hurt others, very literally - "Words Can Be Weapons."
Eailer this year, the Center For Psychological Research in Shenyang partnered with the Beijing office of Ogilvy and Mather to illustrate this fact,"Words Can Be Weapons." With the number of juvenile criminals increasing from 33,000 in 1998 to an estimated 80,000 in 2007, juvenile crime in China has become a "grave" problem. Through a multimedia campaign based in China and featured in the video above which turns Chinese words into weapons are showing that what we say can hurt others, very literally, and be the begining of criminal behaviour.
Through interviews with six teenagers in Shenyang Detention Center, about what their parents said to them in the past, such as "moron" and "You're a disgrace" the video then transforms these words into replications of the actual weapons these young people later used to commit their crimes.
Words can be Weapons
“Verbal abuse of children is like setting off a time bomb. It explodes only much later, long after the original perpetrator has left the scene. And it is society that pays the price, as is evident from the rising rate of juvenile crime," explained Juggi Ramakrishnan, Ogilvy and Mather's Executive Creative Director in Beijing, in a press release. "We really needed to tell this ‘cycle-of-violence’ story in a way that will make people sit up and take notice.”
