On the 21st of December, the darkest day of the year in Sweden, we published an ad to promote Volkswagen’s Night Vision technology. With a tragic story that changes meaning and gets a happy ending when read in the dark.

Night Vision is an infrared camera that see over 300 meters in front of the car and reacts to the heat from animal and human bodies. To demonstrate it to the target audience we brought it to life in an unexpected way.

The ad was printed with two layers of ink. One with traditional ink that’s visible in daylight, and one with luminescent ink that glows in the dark. So when you read it in daylight, it’s a tragic story where a little deer gets hit by a car. If you read it in the dark, a new layer of copy appears, and the car stops before it’s too late.

We used the Swedish winter environment to make a print ad interactive. During the darkest day of the year light-sensitive luminescent ink sprinkled fairy dust on a tragic story, and gave it a happy ending, which made both the story and the feature come alive.