That is the tagline of the new ad campaign for Amnesty International in Sweden Switzerland [thx ask!].
The ads use transparent outdoor billboards that will blow your mind. They put the human rights abuse into your own context and environment. Shocking use of imagery.
Send Amnesty some love and appreciation for putting this out there fearlessly.
On a day when the European govts are being chastized for aiding and abetting the secret prisons, when Darfur is still a living hell, where Haditha can be allowed to happen and Gitmo still exists, this campaign is an in-your-face reminder that we can’t keep silent. 
Peace.
crossposted at My Left Wing
I’m blown away by these. They’re absolutely brilliant.
In fact, I think they’d look good outside the local Wal-Mart.
the power of the images and the inclusion of one’s immediate and familiar environment thru the use of the “transparent billboard” is pure genius.
THIS is what I have been trying to come to in my own search for ways to impact perception and awareness through the use of visual images…Jezeus, I just had an epiphany.
THANK YOU Spidey! I’ve never seen this technology before…Oh Boy! Now I’m excited to find a way to make this work here. Any info/links regarding the technology would be appreciated.
Peace
I agree completely with every single thing you said.
I’m not certain what the tech is, I’ll try and find out.
There’s another string of photos of the campaign here. I think if you examine the African guy with the AK-47 crouching at the end of the railway platform, and the person being beaten on the footpath (sidewalk), you’ll see pretty clearly that they are plain old posters, made for the individual locations.
Thanks for bringing it here, spidey. Very powerful images.
Small correction; the campaign is in Switzerland – not Sweden.
OOOPS, thanks ask!!!
Wow! Those are really something — thanks for sharing ’em.
Thanks for putting this up Spiderleaf.
After I read your diary, I wrote to Amnesty here in the UK to ask when we’d be getting these ads here.
I heard back from them, surprisingly saying thanks for the link I sent and that they’d pass it on to their marketing department.
So when the ads are all over UK bus stops you can take the credit !
shocking. Wow. Thanks for the info.
Can’t wait to see them in the USA–any info on when and where?
This is a televised ad campaign in Sweden? Wow. I don’t think any US network would accept it.
nope, outside on bus stops, etc. But yeah, it’s in your face. And no, probably not one US company that owned a billboard would accept it.
And no, probably not one US company that owned a billboard would accept it.
I think we can safely scratch “probably.”
But at least this campaign is happening now, even if it’s not happening here.
Thanks, spidey, for showing us this. Powerful — brilliant — definitely a tactic to have in the kit.
That was such a beautiful quote.
Those are incredible!
Madison avenue has got nothing on whichever Swede came up with this idea.
Why do I feel like this idea is so good and so effective that there is absolutley no friggin chance it will show up here in the good ol’ USA.
Y’ever feel like that?
I rather doubt Amnesty could in good conscience run this campaign, under this slogan, in the U.S.
True. Probably have to be: It is happening now, and it is happening here.
There are some other versions of the ads here at the advertising agency’s website… click through ‘english’ to ‘work’ to ‘amnesty’ in the flash presentation.
Looking closely at the photos you posted, I suspect that the ads are posters where the images are superimposed on a photo taken at that location, rather than a clear screen. This could presumably only be done for a limited number of sites without becoming prohibitively expensive, but a few posters is enough to start a debate…
These are some of the most compelling images I’ve ever seen.
I do think the signs are clear. It is the perspective in the distance that makes them look so real, compared to , say, a transparent sign placed on the window of a store. Similar see-through, but without the difference in perspective.
I’d bet they’re opaque, with individualized backgrounds. If you look closely, there are breaks in the lines that wouldn’t be there if the background were clear. Look at the fence in front of the guys in the orange jumpsuits or at the poster in front of the pink building. If they were transparent backgrounds the horizontal lines would be continuous, but they’re not.
Magnificent work but quite expensive on a large scale.
Sent the links to a couple of environmental graphics people I know and the consensus is that these are “site specific” and opaque…a very expensive process, and very effective.
Note opacity in the above phone kiosk…there is someone or somethings visible below the ‘poster’ that are obscured…as well as the “missing bits” of the trolly:
see larger version above in diary
Several mentioned that images may be reproduced on clear backgrounds and attached to glass and clearly readable from both sides, but that this is not the technique employed here.
All agree to the power of the visuals