• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, May 18, 2022

Publicis Groupe’s Le Truc and sibling agency Leo Burnett Ukraine have created a pro bono campaign for the Human Rights Foundation’s Ukraine humanitarian fund, Operation Sunflower.

The work includes a website, OOH execution and an experiential video installation, Voices from the Inside.

The OOH portion of the campaign includes a series of Time Square billboards including one called “Give AF,” which uses bold text in the colors of the Ukrainian flag to solicit donations via a QR code.

A separate Times Square installation is titled, “Building,” with imagery of a destroyed building that urges New Yorkers to visit HRF.org to help.

The website and OOH elements feature Ukrainian Publicis Groupe employees. The experiential video installation will be present at HRF’s upcoming Oslo Freedom Forum conference (May 23-25). It will feature an interactive experience for conference attendees, which lets them hear the voices and record their own audio messages of support and solidarity.

A corresponding film will also be shared on the main stage at the forum as part of the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs’ keynote speech.

“It’s hard to imagine what it feels like to experience war, as the media often dictates the narrative,” says Bastien Baumann, chief design officer at Publicis Groupe and founding partner at Le Truc.

Céline Boustani, President of the Human Rights Foundation added, "Every day, we are overwhelmed by news bulletins, reports, and special investigations. It can be exhausting to sift through the facts, rumors, exaggerations, and propaganda.”

The new campaign she asserted, “lays bare the true cost of war, and reveals the voices of people inside Ukraine who are suffering in silence.”