’Tramnesty’

Background

Freedom of expression, especially on the internet, was under threat in several countries because of censorship. The aim of the campaign was to raise awareness of the issue in Belgium, a country fortunate to have the internet freely accessible.

Idea

When people travelled to work on the trams in Brussels, they would often browse the internet on their smartphones during their commute.

The idea was to prevent them from being able to go online to get the news or to share their own messages with each other.

When travellers tried to surf the net, they got this message: "You are cut off from the Internet during your commute. But for millions of people fighting for the freedom of expression, this is a daily struggle."

The trams were branded with the Amnesty colours and both inside and out carried the line 'Freedom of expression is not for all'.

Results

Commuters in Brussels and Ghent had to cope with no internet on the trams for a whole month. During that period, a number of high-profile politicians supported the campaign, triggering national coverage in TV and press.

There was also coverage on all the main national news websites as well as in blogsites from Brazil to Russia.

Our Thoughts

Just go back ten years and remember what your mobile phone was like then. And what it is capable of now. This idea brings home the truth of Moore’s Law (that the computing power of phones, among other bits of hardware, doubles every two years) vividly. Today, the internet is like oxygen. We expect it to be always on, always there. I’m not sure how much this would make me feel sympathetic towards oppressed people elsewhere but it would certainly remind me how damn lucky we are in most parts of the first world.