VOTE NO TO STUPID

TitleVOTE NO TO STUPID
BrandKEEP FUTURE ON TRACK (LOCAL CITIZEN’S GROUP)
Product / ServicePUBLIC AWARENESS
CategoryA07. Charities, Public Health & Safety, Public Awareness Messages
EntrantASATSU-DK Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation ASATSU-DK Tokyo, JAPAN
PR VECTOR GROUP Tokyo, JAPAN
Production OCTAVE NIBAN-KOBO PRODUCTIONS Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Naohiro Togawa ADK Creative Director
Yuta Kaneko ADK Planner
Yuichiro Joshua Okada ADK Planner
Saori Kiryu VECTOR GROUP Platinum, inc. CEO
Yosuke Fujii VECTOR GROUP Platinum, inc. PR Consultant
Sohei Kan VECTOR GROUP Platinum, inc. PR Consultant
Atsushi Tokuue NIBAN-KOBO Producer
Yoshitomo Yao NIBAN-KOBO Director
Nobuya Imai NIBAN-KOBO Director
Etsuko Akiba Freelance Art

The Campaign

To get the conversation started fast, and question the stupidity of the plan, our idea was to visualize and powerfully let people know how stupidly overblown the plan was. Created GIANT SUPERMARKET TROLLEY and GIANT BEER GLASSES, items which can easily be compared to its relevant size, and questioned the citizens with a message “Do you need something STUPID as this?”.

Execution

- Installed STUPIDLY BIG SUPERMARKET TROLLEY in the center of the city with a sign that said, “Do you need something STUPID as this” “¥30 billion sports park plan is stupidly big just like this supermarket trolley.” - STUPIDLY BIG BEER GLASSES became an attention-grabber to start off conversation at 8 local bars and restaurants.

- Started conversations online and offline. - Earned $5.7 million worth of publicity nationwide, making local topic into a national news of concern. - More than 80.8% of the people voted against the plan, with 63,482 votes opposing and 15,101 votes in favor. - Most importantly, the mayor cancelled the plan one week after the voting, which is VERY rare in Japan where government decision was overruled.

The Situation

By creating impactful installation which questioned the construction of MEGA sports park, we not only succeeded in creating conversations among the citizens, but also attracted national media who further amplified the news nationwide, effecting strongly on the result of the public voting. As a result, the vote against the sports park plan won by a landslide. A week later, the city decided to cancelled the plan, which is a VERY rare case in Japan where the government decision was overruled.

The Strategy

We need to quickly raise awareness about the stupid plan to all the citizens, and awaken them from "Olympic illusion". To get the conversation started fast, our idea was to visualize and powerfully let people know how stupidly overblown the plan was. We needed to create impact and make this topic come up on people’s timelines, since people nowadays rely their news source on online media, which often does not pickup on local topics. In addition, to further amplify the news, we approached TV media with attention-grabbing GIANT installations.