Cannes Lions

The Uncensored Playlist

DDB, Berlin / REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS / 2018

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Overview

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Credits

Overview

Description

While in the worlds most censored countries many news websites and blogs are blocked by oppressive governments, music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music are freely accessible.

We used this online loophole to evade censorship. Turning 5 acclaimed journalists from 5 repressed countries into music artists. Their censored articles were turned into lyrics and then uploaded onto music streaming platforms as uncensored pop songs.

On the 12th of March: World Day Against Cyber Censorship all the songs came together as The Uncensored Playlist.

Execution

Our music team interviewed each of the journalists to capture the essence of their stories before transforming them into lyrics. While traveling incognito to the oppressed countries, they met local musicians, explored genres and the local instruments of each country and shot material to create music videos.

We created album artwork for 5 albums (one per country) before uploading them onto Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer. On World Day Against Cyber Censorship all the songs came together as The Uncensored Playlist along with our website www.uncensoreplaylist.com

featuring lyrics, articles, music documentary videos shot in the different countries and the hashtag #truthfindsaway

Meanwhile our support network of both local and international journalists spread word about the project far and wide in the traditional media and online.

And the online loophole worked perfectly, with the songs reaching all 5 countries as well as people around the world.

Outcome

The playlist sparked a global conversation about censorship with 300+ news stories and 680+ million people reached to date. Appearing in the global music and news media such as The Guardian, The Fader, Der Spiegel, Glamour, Pitchfork and the BBC: Reaching far more people than the original articles could ever have. But most importantly, our songs became hits in the places where the articles had once been forbidden: peaking at #7 in the Vietnamese iTunes chart in its very first week. Encouraging globally recognised names such as Amazon to support our message.

The Uncensored Playlist will continue to connect journalists with musicians. Defying censorship every time a new song is uploaded.

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