Street children don’t exist. In people’s minds, at least. And not in Germany especially. So we had to spotlight the problem and make it a personal experience. And say that UNICEF helps these children. Since UNICEF does not have a huge advertising budget and prefers to invest the donations it receives in projects that help children immediately, this campaign was allowed to cost little if anything to implement. An arrangement was made with the city authorities that all new garbage cans did not involve any additional expenditure for the city, while we incurred minimal costs and the result was an eye-catching, personally experienced campaign throughout the city. We had to achieve maximum effect at minimum cost. So the media team suggested approaching people where they least expect it. Using advertising space that normally isn’t anything of the sort and costs nothing. We used municipal garbage cans as advertising space. We designed them in such a way that the opening suddenly became a child’s mouth. We then attached the garbage cans to lampposts and signs. With the result that we made it clear to people directly and forcefully what conditions street children have to live in and what they live on: society’s garbage. The outcome: people did not throw their garbage into the can in the thoughtless way they usually do. They stopped for a moment instead, thought about our message – and, hopefully, decided to make a donation.

The media team suggested approaching people where they least expect it