Our communication goals were to make people aware of the terrible consequences of landmines worldwide and of the need to remove them. We wanted to make people aware without repulsing them, thus no blood. We also wanted people to visit the Adopt-A-Minefield website at www.landmines.org.uk as monetary donations can be made directly from the site. The key media ideas were: To attract attention in a fresh, interactive way, when people least expect it. The element of surprise was important. The hand towel dispenser achieved this perfectly as the interaction of tearing a person’s leg off and then seeing the logo “Adopt-A-Minefield” really brought the enormity of the world landmine problem home. Consumers actually visualised the horror of landmines without us having to show them. The media team’s contribution to this idea, was to suggest to the creative department that we needed to speak to potential donors in a fresh and exciting way, as the charity genre is very difficult to get people interested in. They suggested different forms of guerrilla advertising, happenings, displays in shopping malls, restrooms or toilets in public areas etc to get people interested when they least expected it. Thus the creative team thought, what better way than to ambush people while they were drying their hands in toilets in public areas? Media also suggested some form of interactive thought, so as to demonstrate the horror of landmines but not with the blood and gore usually associated with these kinds of public service messages. What makes this submission special is that it uses a new form of media: paper towel dispensers. These towel dispensers were placed in public restrooms and loaded with specially printed towels. To use the dispenser, which you unavoidably had to do after washing your hands, consumers were forced to rip someone’s legs off, demonstrating the indiscriminately cruel nature of landmines. Consumers were referred to the website for further information. This idea should be a winner as it uses a new form of media and effectively demonstrates the problem in a creative way.

The media team’s contribution to this idea, was to suggest to the creative department that we needed to speak to potential donors in a fresh and exciting way, as the charity genre is very difficult to get people interested in. They suggested different forms of guerrilla advertising, happenings, displays in shopping malls, restrooms or toilets in public areas etc to get people interested when they least expected it. Thus the creative team thought, what better way than to ambush people while they were drying their hands in toilets in public areas? Media also suggested some form of interactive thought, so as to demonstrate the horror of landmines but not with the blood and gore usually associated with these kinds of public service messages.