Turn listening into activism.

What?

A distress signal on behalf of Teodora Vasquez.

HOW?

By hijacking the shut down FM-radio-network in Norway, and make it possible for anyone to boost the signal in Social media.

Why?

Teodora Vasquez was sentenced to 30 years in prison after suffering a stillbirth. She had already spent 10 years in prison, but no one was listening.  By counting every listener of "The Distress signal" we can show El Salvador that the world is paying attention.

First we created the actual distress signal - a recording made from a phone call with Teodora's sister and a reporter from Amnesty International.

We then managed to hijack the FM-band using our own radio-receiver, to broadcast its first distress signal since second world war.

Our receiver could only reach 8km, but by linking the broadcast to social media through a 24/7 live stream, we invited people to help us boost the signal.

On iamlistening.org people could turn their Facebook or Twitter into a radio antenna by sharing the signal. #iamlistening trended on twitter.

In the Live stream of the signal we had created a layer where we could communicate in real time with our audience about what was going on. And more importantly, you could see the counter showing how many people who had listened before you. This was our petition.

The campaign was live 24/7 for 9 days.

- Massive national news coverage.

- Every political leader in Norway shared the signal.

- Radio stations donated airtime.

- 317 PR stories.

In the end "The distress signal" didn't only Reach: over 2,5 billion people.

It was a new take on the traditional petition campaigns, where people could see their friends listening in.

And on Feb 15th the Salvadoran government overruled the court's decision and Teodora was set free.

Since then, one additional woman has been released