In order to draw attention to the subject, we used a powerful medium with a large circulation and an advertisement that people couldn’t look away from. We wanted to make the pain of torture tangible! Given that there are so many different methods of torture used on victims’ hands, the theoretical path for our ad wasn’t too far away, because the idea that little pegs are driven under victims’ fingernails or that captives’ fingers would simply be nailed down isn’t all that far from staples being shot through hands.

A brief passage of text draws attention to the fact that torture is employed in over 140 countries, encouraging readers to act against this outrageous barbarity alongside Amnesty International. The text in the ad calls attention to the Amnesty International Web site, where people were able to find out more information on the subject and make a donation. Donors then had the option of uploading an image with a blindfold to raise awareness of the campaign, and posting it on Facebook.

Amnesty International’s biggest concern was to make people aware of torture and prevent them from looking away. We achieved this objective! We generated 1.2 million contacts and the ad ensured a huge increase in signatures shortly after publication. On Facebook, around 22,500 individual images with blindfolds were posted – proof that the idea had an impact!