We felt that an interactive campaign would be best to share this message as we were also dealing with public opinion, meaning promoting peace. Since Vesak, the most important religious event for the Buddhists, was around the corner, we used one of the most recognized icons of Vesak, the Vesak Lantern, to reach out to the public.

As the Buddhists as well as people from other religions created colourful Vesak lanterns during this time, that was the best vehicle to use for our campaign.

We ran a teaser ad preparing the public a week before the actual ad. On the 1st of May (few days before the Vesak festival day), we printed the four sides of a traditional Vesak lantern with all the symbols of Sri Lanka’s main religions (ie: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam & Hindu) in our client’s newspaper ‘Mawbima’ as a centre spread insertion, with the accompanying message “Contribute towards religious harmony & solidarity this Vesak by hanging this lantern for all to see”. Simple and standard instructions were given on the same page on creating this colourful Vesak lantern.

The idea was an instant hit with both Buddhists and other religious communities. Coverage by major news channels generated millions of rupees worth of free TV & Radio publicity and resulted in the Mawbima newspaper being sold out (island wide) by 10 in the morning. Enthusiasm for the project also spread like wildfire through social media and word of mouth and the rising of the full moon on Vesak saw Mawbima lanterns being lighted in homes, shops and streets throughout Sri Lanka. This was also highly commended by respected religious leaders including Venerable Buddhist Theras and religious figures from all the main religions in Sri Lanka. While commenting on this campaign, the religious leaders took the opportunity on mass media to promote religious harmony and the importance of it. The message that the majority of Buddhists and individuals of other religions were peace loving people, was evident to all!