I wish I could have written about this sooner, but our little blog just wasn’t around when these ads were presented. This summer, Amnesty International launched an ad campaign in Switzerland, designed by the firm Walker Werbeagentur Zuerich, that highlighted human rights violations in various parts of the world. The ads ran through June 23 on Tram and Bus stops in select Swiss cities. Each ad is printed on a transparent background, so it actually appears to be site specific. The people look as though they are blending in with the scenery. It is, in my opinion a brilliant use of materials and amazingly well executed. Even though they ran over a month ago, they really are worth checking out just to see the execution and how powerful the images become through their disconnect between the reality we generally see and the reality of the image itself. So, if you haven’t seen them, take a look (link below). The caption reads “It’s happening. Not here but now.”, and is printed in 4 languages.

You can go to Houtlust to see the whole campaign. Houtlust documents non-profit advertising and social campaigns. When you go to see the Amnesty ads, stay and browse for awhile. They have archived some very powerful and interesting things.