Violence in and around football stadiums has become a chronic problem in Brazil, causing deaths, scaring away families and driving ticket revenues down year after year.

With all the attentions focused in Brazil, because of the FIFA World Cup, we needed more than awareness campaign; we needed to stop the violence. We had to do something that could change football fans attitude to bring peace back to stadiums, engaging fans, players, and the press.

Thus was born project Linesmen for Peace.

During the 2014 Sao Paulo championship, an old football rule was changed: the linesmen's traditional red and yellow flags were replaced with white flags, the universal symbol of peace. Not just during one game, but during all the 158 matches. The message was completed with signs on the field that read: Nothing can impede peace. Every time the flag was raised, the linesmen would send out a message of peace as a reminder against violence for everyone watching the games in the stadiums or on TV.

From the very first game, journalists and sportscasters explained the campaign to their audiences. Over the course of the championship, the campaign grew in scope and everyone participated – players, journalists, sports managers and fans. With costs under 20 thousand dollars, the campaign concluded by publishing extremely positive results: a drastic reduction in the number of people arrested for acts of violence in stadiums, from 47 in 2013 to just one person in 2014.

For our launch, we prepared a press kit containing an official linesman’s flag in white, a series of stickers calling for peace in the stadiums and all of our supporting material, like releases and videos. This kit was sent to the entire sports press, bloggers, famous players, fan group leaders, sports teams’ webmasters, etc.

Before each game, we organized a lightning action to put press releases in the hands of the radio and TV sportscasters who would be present at each stadium. With each round, a new message was planned based on how the campaign was evolving.

At the end of the project, we organized a new wave of PR, including interviews with the Sao Paulo Football Federation’s top directors, to announce a drastic reduction in the number of people arrested for acts of violence in stadiums, from 47 in 2013 to just one person in 2014.

The campaign achieved a dramatic reduction in the number of people arrested for violence in the stadiums: from 47 people in 2013, to only 1 person in 2014, according to the Police Department. An astonishing 98% reduction.

Over 270 newspapers picked up our headline and sparked the conversation. 42 sports shows explained to their audiences why the linesmen’s flags had changed. Free TV insertions were earned every time the linesmen raised the campaign’s white flag, which was an average of 8 per game, more than 1,200 in total.