The Foolitzer Prizes
E-Farsas
Issue 52 | September 2019
Agency
Leo Burnett Tailor Made
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer: Marcelo Reis Executive Creative Director: Wilson Mateos General Creative Director: Pedro Utzeri Creative Director: Vinicius Stanzione Art Director: Breno Ribeiro Copywriters: Fabio Nagano, Filipe Medici, Renato Ramalho.
Production Team
Agency Producers: Fernanda Moura, Viviane de Castro, Patricia Cosmo Editors: Matheus Basilio, Chrystian Danucalov, Neco Costa Artbuyers: Cristiano Godoy, Mauro Moura Graphic Producer: Ricardo Sotelo Digital Project Team: Denis Gustavo, Pedro Rais, Marcela Grandino Production Company: Asteroide
Other Credits
Account Team: Fabio Brito, Simone Lopes, Viviane De Castro Media Team: Andrea Hirata, Kelly Cotta, Thais Miranda, Joao Bouner Planning: Tiago Lara Client Approval: Gilmar Lopes
Date
January - February 2019
Background
Fake news is a real issue in Brazil, where the manipulation and misuse of data is feared to influence elections that affect the direction of travel of the entire country.
E-Farsas wwas established in 2002 to debunk rumours circulating the internet before they could influence the behaviour of Brazilians.
Idea
The idea was to curate and select the very worst news stories in the categories of politics, sport, health, entertainment, conspiracy and award these Foolitzer prizes, the very worst being awarded the Grand Foolitzer.
Inspired by the Pulitzer Prize, which celebrates the best news stories in the world, the Foolitzers were intended to give the creators of fake news the one thing they did not want. The spotlight.
With the support of Brazil’s largest media groups, the public were encouraged to view all the nominees and vote for the Grand Foolitzer, thus exposing the ‘winners’ as fakers.
Results
More than 52 million people were impacted by The Foolitzer Prize. It achieved earned media around U$720,000. Besides that, some websites stopped to posting fake news, got offline or change their names.
Our Thoughts
Fake news is the news these days. In the USA, a Gallup poll measured trust in mass media at 32%, its lowest level ever. (Oops. Apparently only 53% of writers verify other writers’ work before sharing it. You can see how fakery happens, can’t you?) Is it more fake in South America? On pages 30-31 we’ve featured Artplan’s work for Metro Newspapers, also from Brazil.
Fact checking has become good business, that’s for sure, with companies like E-Farsas able to get both stories and channels removed from Facebook and other social media.
It helps prevent exaggerated claims of superiority being made as well as lies about people and products.
This is a fun way E-Farsas have raised awareness of their business and why it is needed as a public service.