Our task was to reach as many people as possible with a fresh media idea; a communication strategy that would draw attention to capital punishment, and would support the Amnesty-International event in Frankfurt. For this we developed a media idea that brings the cruelty of capital punishment out into everyday live in a highly direct way. Nothing of this kind had ever been seen before: in terms of magnitude and immediacy, the impact was almost impossible to ignore.

In keeping with our client’s modest communication budget, our installation was highly cost effective: we achieve more than 40,000 visual contacts every day, more than 1 million contacts through TV and newspaper coverage. More than 20000 petitions were signed.

We developed an installation in Frankfurt/Main. On the busiest street in the city we hung 20 gallows from streetlights – one for each person who is executed each day (according to official estimates). People responded in many different ways: some were shocked, others were irritated, but nobody was indifferent. Two banners across the street communicated the key messages to passers-by. To support the installation and to get more signatures against capital punishment, we also created a microsite from which people could download the petitions.

We had no specific target audience; our communication goal was to make contact with as many people as possible. The first touch point was the installation itself. Two banners across the street gave information about the Amnesty International stand in Frankfurt. The second banner also provided a web address to connect people to the microsite, which means the second touch point was either the Amnesty International stand, or the microsite. In addition to providing information on capital punishment, the microsite also offered downloads of the petitions for users to print out, sign, and send back to Amnesty International.