The Dutch Homeless Youth Foundation (Stichting Zwerfjongeren Nederland) is dedicated to helping the more than 5000 homeless youths who live in the Netherlands. It endeavours to provide assistance to meet the needs of homeless youth throughout the region. The foundation supports initiatives in the field of housing, education and employment (structural assistance), and bundles knowledge and expertise with the ultimate goal of establishing new care facilities. Furthermore, the foundation brings the issue of homeless youth to the attention of the general public and exerts an influence on opinions among the general population and among politicians.

There was no money available for the development and implementation of a broad-based mass media campaign. To draw attention to the issue despite the financial limitations, the Dutch Homeless Youth Foundation decided to develop an attention-grabbing product. Under the name ‘Le Clochard’, the foundation introduced special duvet covers printed with a lifelike picture of an unfolded cardboard box. With this product, the foundation has created a clever device for effectively raising the issue publicly, while also raising funds. About 40% of the sales price of each duvet cover goes directly to the Dutch Homeless Youth Foundation.

Primary objective: to generate maximum interest in the phenomenon of homeless youth and the Dutch Homeless Youth FoundationDespite the lack of a media budget, it is estimated that more than € 550,000 net in free media publicity has been generated.(source: TBWA\PR Company)The ‘Le Clochard’ website went online in October 2007. The number of unique visits rose from 0 at the beginning of October to 6000 per month (beginning in November). Traffic to the Dutch Homeless Foundation website (www.zwerfjongeren.nl) has tripled since the campaign was first launched (from 1000 unique visits a month to 3000 a month).