Israel’ s‘ Peace Without Terror’ ad campaign takes top prizes
BUENOS AIRES (JTA) – An ad campaign focused on peace created by the Israeli Embassy in Argentina about the 1992 bombing attack on the facility won two communications prizes.
The“Peace Without Terror” campaign won two Eikon Prizes for Excellence in Institutional Communications, one for Social Marketing and one for Institutional Advertising. The prizes were awarded Wednesday.
The ad campaign, which received extensive media attention in bringing awareness to the 25th anniversary of the embassy attack, presented Argentinean celebrities making the number 25 with their fingers, showing one hand making the “V” sign for peace using two fingers, and the other making a “stop” to terror sign using the whole hand, or five fingers.
The campaign developed by Basevich Crea agency involved 64 participating celebrities; a photo exhibition in a national gallery; a book; videos screened on national television; and 20 countries that replicated the campaign.
“The success of the campaign was huge in numbers and in meaning. Our aim was to approach the memory of bombing from a point of view that is the opposite of the terror, to spread the idea of peace as the way to challenge the terror,” Javier Basevich, owner of Basevich Crea, told JTA.
A car bomb destroyed the Buenos Aires embassy on March 17 1992, killing 29 and injuring 242.
Iran is believed to be behind the bombing, as well as the deadly attack in 1994 on the AMIA Jewish community center in the same city. No perpetrators in either attack have been brought to justice.
The Eikon Prize for Excellence in Institutional Communications has been held since 1998 by the Imagen Magazine. The ceremony was attended by 400 professionals.
The Israeli embassy was the only organization to win two prizes at the same ceremony.