Humanity Wall
HLN.be, Grenzecho.net, Maariv, Correio da Manha, Hurriyet, Milliyet and others
Issue 51 | June 2019
Agency
Happiness Brussels
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Geoffrey Hantson Executive Creative Director Katrien Bottez Copywriter Pieter Claeys Art Director Roxane Schneider Creative Thomas Capelle
Production Team
Motion Designer Remke Faber Head of Design Dries Lauwers Illustrator Tadeu Bossart Editing Simon Schuurman Head of Production Bart Vande Maele Senior Digital Producer Kris van Wallendael Head of Technology Thomas Colliers
Date
March 2019
Background
Many publishers have paywalls on their websites. In other words, you can only access the information they have when you have paid for it. The mechanism was mainly used by online versions of newspapers and magazines.
Humanity Wall used exactly the same mechanic but for a very different outcome.
Idea
Humanity Wall operated exactly like a paywall. The big difference: access was not granted via a commercial payment but via a donation.
Online news outlets were approached and encouraged to replace their paywalls by humanity walls whenever they covered a humanitarian crisis. Not just once but every time money was needed.
This new way to monetise online content for good was an open-source idea, made available to any publisher to benefit the charities of their choosing.
Results
In Belgium, the Humanity Wall was speedily adopted by HLN.be and Grenzecho.net on behalf of the 1212 consortium, a group of NGOs. It spread quickly across Europe. In Turkey it was taken up by Hurriyet and Milliyet and in Israe¨l by Maariv. In Portugal Correio da Manha now puts up a Humanity Wall in times of need.
Our Thoughts
The advertising profession is much despised around the world and yet it is capable of making the world a better place in so many ways. Here’s an advertisement for advertising, if you like, an agency having an idea and making it freely available to anyone who sees the value in it.
In persuading their clients to embrace worthwhile causes and in generating the ideas that can make life a little better for people, agencies can become the agents of greater change and maybe, just maybe, a little more respected.