When I first saw this advertising campaign, I was simply stunned since I haven’t had seen a smart ad for a long time. Furthermore, there seems to be a strong correlation between print advertisement and intelligent campaigns. Just think about how The Economist advertises itself or how newspapers such as Financial Times do it. There ads are simply great. However, although it might be true that these ads target a specific type of people (bright people), I can still argue with you that print ads are overall smarter and bolder than those that you see on TV.
And there’s plenty of brightness and boldness in the 2005 Grande Reportagem Magazine’s “Meet the world” campaign. The FCB Lisbon ad agency and Luis Silva Dias its Creative Director had the smart idea of making a set of 7 flag infographics, each with its one different story, but with all tackling a set of problems that the UN (United Nations) is dealing with: health, poverty and education. But finding the right data that could decently fit into the size of each flag’s colour or symbol was certainly a difficult one and is one of those things that make this campaign as it is –one of the most brilliant campaigns over the past 10 years. Now enjoy and be inspired!
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USA
Red – In favor of the war in Iraq
White – Against the war in Iraq
Blue – Don’t know where Iraq is
Meet the world
Brazil
Green – Live with less than 10 dolars a month
Yellow – Live with less than 100 dolars a month
Blue – Live with less than 1000 dolars a month
White – Live with more than 100.000 dolars a month
Meet the world
Columbia
Red – Banana export
Blue – Coffee export
Yellow – Cocaine export
China
Red – Working 14 year olds
Yellow – Studying 14 year olds
Meet the world
Somalia
Blue – Women who endure genital mutilation
White – Women who do not endure genital mutilation
Meet the world
Angola
Red – People infected by HIV
Black – People infected by Malaria
Yellow – People with access to medical care
Meet the world
Burkina Faso
Red – Children who die before completing one year of age
Green – Children who die before their third birthday
Yellow – Children who reach maturity
Meet the World