Amnesty International - Start gun / Execution - print, Romania

DDB in Budapest has created this topical ad which ran during the olympics asking the public to join in the fight against death penalties in China. (click for large version as usual)
It reminds me quite a lot about the Amnesty "after the Olympics" ads which won bronze in Cannes, despite the fact that the ad campaign never ran according to Amnesty making it one of many scam ads in this years Cannes Lion awards. That Amnesty campaign got TBWA Worldwide into trouble when Chinese netheads saw the ad and thought that the worldwide networked had acted mighty two-faced. TBWA China, who've done the very patriotic Adidas campaign were not amused. (see printwork: Bejing Moments, Impossible is nothing, Impossible is nothing 2 and commercials: Countdown, Gametime and this interview with psyops directors for the rest)

Lets hope me posting this ad, doesn't get me in the same hot water I was in for posting the Red Cross Youth campaign which compared human rights violations to olympic sports, and the follow-up posted by the Red Cross youth Red Cross Youth campaign for human rights which caused not only a flameout on this site, but enough email-writing for the Red Cross (Youth) to pull the "Olympic" human rights campaign in Sweden after pressure from Geneva. The flame-party didn't end there for me (nor the Red Cross) though, as reported in Resumé and Dagens Industri, far more serious incidents than simple angry comments dogged me personally and Adland for weeks.

And just for fun, the most popular Amnesty campaign to date on this site is still the Amnesty International "see-through" poster campaign "It's not happening here but it's happening now" from Walker Werbeagentur in Switzerland in 2006.

If anyone fancies seeing other ads from, with or about China, just search on "China" and there ya go.

Lukasz Brzozowski : Creative Group Head
Gabor Ferenczy : Copywriter
Jorge Rodriguez : Art Director
Kanak Mehra : Copywriter
Nacho Forner : Art Director
Illustrators: Benjamin Toth, Dora Katona.
Account: Andre Musalf, Magdolna Rekasi.