805 Million Names
United Nations World Food Programme
Issue 35 | June 2015
Agency
Forsman & Bodenfors
Creative Team
Copywriters Nick Worthington Fredrik Jansson Karolina Widell Art Directors Staffan Lamm Andreas Malm
Production Team
Production Company New Land, Stockholm / Iconoclast, Paris Director Gustav Johansson Director of Photography Niklas Johansson
Other Credits
Account Director Hans Andersson Account Executive Martin Johansson Agency Producer Jens Odelbring Web Producer Peter Gaudiano
Date
February 2015
Background
Hunger and malnutrition affect some 805 million people around the world today. No-one knows the names of those who are living on the edge of starvation. Yet the United Nations World Food Programme knew that the problem could be eliminated if world leaders were persuaded to resolve it.
Idea
Zlatan Ibrahimovic´ may not have been able to end world hunger on his own but as one of the most famous footballers in the world he did know how to dominate the front pages of every newspaper around the globe.
The idea was to tattoo onto his body the names of 50 people from among the 895 million at risk. During the big game, Paris Saint-Germain versus Caen, at
Parc des Princes on February 14th, all Zlatan had to do was score a goal. In his celebrations, he agreed to remove his shirt so the cameras could see the new names.
The big worry was that he would fail to score.
Not a problem. He scored a beauty, removed his shirt and started a conversation with millions about an issue no-one was taking seriously.
He used his social media and his famous friends to spread awareness.
He got a yellow card for his pains.
Results
The event became world news almost immediately. It led to 3.95+ million social interactions, over 4,500 television reports and new media articles reaching a potential universe of over 870 million people.
Our Thoughts
Usually I only get to see pro-bono ideas like this when they are sent in to the magazine but I got to know about this idea as a normal human being through mainstream media in the UK. In other words, it really did become a talking point. Stealing a global TV audience like this is not new. At every world cup, let alone at every big game, organisers are waiting for an ambush of some sort. This got under the radar and, incidentally, did the Zlatan brand no harm.
Has it led to a concerted effort to end hunger for 12% of the global population? Not yet. But every chip at the wall will help bring it down one day.