Cannes Lions

CITIZEN ACTION CAMPAIGN

YOMIKO ADVERTISING, Tokyo / THE CITIZENS FOR ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE CAMPAIGN OFFICE / 2010

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Overview

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Credits

Overview

Description

The citizens of Japan have little or no experience in taking direct action to ensure their democratic rights. Our challenge was not only to make citizens aware of the complex issue of the value of voting disparity but also move them to action. By following an action framework of publicizing information personalising the issue for each individual, engaging them on an emotional level, mobilising them to take action and to not vote with "no confidence" due to certain justices in the national review of Supreme Court Justices, we successfully designed an online and offline communication process to bring this issue to the attention of the citizens of Japan and urge them to take a specific course of action. Moreover, unprecedented voter participation in the national review results put pressure on the courts whose rulings were then leveraged through media-targeted PR and valuable news exposure in the media valued in hundreds of millions of yen to pressure policymakers.

Execution

This ongoing nationwide campaign kicked off with a major press conference to announce the aims of the Citizens for "One Person, One Vote" Organization. With the aim of building broad awareness and understanding of this complex issue, opinion advertisements were placed in the national newspapers. These ads in combination with the mass distribution of website invitation cards drove traffic to a special website where visitors learned the value of their vote in a vote value simulator, participated in a virtual poll, and learned how to express their dissatisfaction in the National Review of the Supreme Justices. These activities were timed to build momentum for the National Review on August 30, 2009, and to put pressure on district high courts currently deliberating on the constitutionality of the Election Law and legislators. In order to take maximum advantage of high court rulings, a highly responsive PR program amplified the news.

Outcome

Over 25,000 people participated in the virtual poll on the website, contributing to unprecedented voter response in the National Review of Supreme Court justices (over 770,000 voted "no confidence" in justices who support the constitutionality of the current Public Office Election Law.) In response, the Osaka High Court declared the current Public Office Election Law unconstitutional, and this ruling was extensively reported in newspapers, TV and web media (total estimated exposure value: approximately ¥2 billion). Deliberations on the Public Office Election Law by the Upper and Lower houses of the Diet have been accelerated.

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