The Draft Notice “Child Soldiers”
Issue 16 | September 2010
Agency
Jung von Matt AG
Creative Team
Creative Director: Philipp Barth, Holger Oehrlich; Art Director: Stephanie Wiehle; Designer: Nana Poehner; Copywriter: Lars Wagner, Carola Beck, Matthias Hess, Jens Frank; Account Supervisor: Susanne Vanselow, Lisa Ebrahimzadeh, Denise Winter; Agency Producer: Anja Geib; Editor: Robert Jedam
Date
2nd October 2009
Background
The use of child soldiers is common in many countries. Ohne Ruestung Leben e.V, a charity which resettles children in war-torn parts of Africa, wanted to raise awareness about the problem and collect more donations.
Idea
When young German males become adult, they get a call-up letter informing them they must serve in the German army.
The mailing was sent out to families with young children aged between 8 and 14 and looked remarkably similar to the call-up notice their fathers would all have received. In this instance, however, the children of the house are told they will be required to perform military tasks including rape and suicide missions.
The message was: Unthinkable in Germany. Reality in other countries.
Results
The mailing was sent to some 14,000 German homes where there were families with small children. 855 (6.1%) donated money, totalling above 20,000 Euro. Furthermore 95 people opted to join the organisation.
Our Thoughts
For many a Dad this would have been a deeply shocking letter to open. Firstly there would have been the moment of recognition, knowing what the envelope on the hall floor contained. No doubt it was the first to be opened because the recipients would be wondering, since they’d all done their national service already, if there was some mistake. Then they would see the name of their child. And then they would read that he or she was required to kill, pillage, even rape and die for the cause. And then the penny would drop.
Appropriately, this is what I used to call a “camouflage” message. It looks like one thing but turns out to be another and works all the more powerfully because of the deception. The ROI must have run into thousands per each Euro invested, a real return on idea.