Snowden
Elevation Pictures
Issue 41 | December 2016
Agency
DentsuBos
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Jon Freir General Creative Director Travis Cowdy Copywriter Jamie Spears Art Director James Leake
Other Credits
Account Services Nathalie Tom-Yew Catherine Field Social Hailey Filler Media Jordan Blagdon
Date
September 2016
Background
The subject of precedent-setting controversy, Edward Snowden had been called a hero, a hacker, a whistleblower, a dissident, a patriot, and a traitor. His disclosures had fuelled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy and the uneasy balance between personal privacy and national security.
His message? They're watching you.
And for two weeks in September, the unsuspecting citizens of Toronto were the target of just that...being watched.
Idea
To help launch the critically acclaimed Oliver Stone film, "Snowden", DentsuBos and Elevation Pictures set up surveillance cameras, equipped with motion tracking technology, around Dundas Square, Canada's busiest intersection. Their mission was to track and follow pedestrians from afar while live-streaming the footage onto one of the square's giant video boards. When the unsuspecting targets saw themselves on the big screen, their shocked reactions created all the drama needed to drive home the film's point.
Results
Unknown
Our Thoughts
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be spied on? A handful of people in Toronto got to find out how it feels when Big Brother is watching. Spooky.
The clever part of this is the client and agency allowed people to discover for themselves they were under surveillance, which made their reactions all the more startled.
ECD John Frier was quoted as saying, almost everyone "looked around to see if there were other cameras spying on them. Which in itself is very telling."
I love it when rather than just make an announcement, advertising becomes a part of the story.