The Uncensored Playlist
Reporters without Borders
Issue 48 | September 2018
Agency
DDB Group Germany, Berlin
Creative Team
CCO Dennis May Executive Creative Director Gabriel Mattar Creative Director Ricardo Wolff Senior Art director Felipe Cury Senior Copywriter Patrik Lenhart, Jack Christensen Senior Digital Art Director Marco Lemcke Junior Art Director Evandro Scudeler, Lis Ferreira
Production Team
Editor Sascha Gerlach - Freelancer Production DaHouse Film Production Le Tour Du Monde Production MediaMonks, Amsterdam
Other Credits
Managing Director Bianca Dordea Account Director Sarah Bensel Film Director Iris Fuzaro Music Director Lucas Mayer Account Manager Cassiano Derenji PR FinchFactor
Date
March 2018
Background
Online press censorship is on the rise globally. But rather than just creating a traditional awareness campaign Reporters Without Borders Germany decided to tackle the problem head on.
Idea
While in the worlds most censored countries many news websites and blogs are blocked by oppressive governments, music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music are freely accessible. This online loophole was used to evade censorship by turning five acclaimed journalists from five repressed countries into music artists. Their censored articles were turned into lyrics and then uploaded onto music streaming platforms as uncensored pop songs.
On the 12th of March, World Day Against Cyber Censorship, all the songs came together as The Uncensored Playlist.
Results
The playlist sparked a global conversation about censorship with over 300 news stories reaching 680+ million people.
The songs became hits in the places where the articles had once been forbidden, peaking at #7 in the Vietnamese iTunes chart in its very first week. Encouraging globally recognised names such as Amazon to support the message. The Uncensored Playlist will continue to connect journalists with musicians. Defying censorship every time a new song is uploaded.
Our Thoughts
I’ve written elsewhere in this issue that there are times creative people need to resort to low cunning in order to be able to reach people who don’t want to be reached or, as here, are prevented from being reached.
This is so simple. And as is always the case with simple, it looks so easy. But so much about this would have been difficult. Turning a polemic into a lyric takes real craft and then being able to write music that people actually want to listen to for its own sake, that requires artistry too. This could so easily have been an idea of good intentions but woeful delivery and it’s a tribute to the creatives involved that it isn’t.