PR > Culture & Context

N23

ACTION, Moscow / NOVAYA GAZETA / 2020

Awards:

Gold Cannes Lions
CampaignCampaign(opens in a new tab)
Presentation Image
Supporting Images
Case Film

Overview

Credits

Overview

Why is this work relevant for PR?

We have achieved a great historical result due to a powerful PR effect. We have planned the strong ideological symbol which could attract people’s and media’s attention. And we can say that, finally, we have changed the social and cultural agenda of Russia with the help of this project and its PR effect.

Background

Nowadays the Russian government is restoring the cult of Stalin.

According to a pan-national survey, 46% of Russians aged 18-24 have never heard about mass repressions in the USSR. And 70% of the responders rate Stalin's role in the history "rather positively".

The government was going to reconstruct the main symbol of Stalin's terror - “The House of Executions” at Nikolskaya, 23 at the center of Moscow (in which 31,456 people were shot dead) - into a luxury perfume boutique. Most Russians didn't know anything about that because the government tried to do everything quietly.

When “Novaya Gazeta” - the leading oppositional newspaper - learned about the fact, it decided to declare this terrible intention as loudly as possible. Our main goal was to change the future of the house, to create public awareness, to call for boycotting any commercial use of the building and to open a museum there!

Describe the creative idea

Our idea was to create a provocative symbol of today's blasphemous reality, when a luxury perfume boutique is to be opened in a building where 31,456 people were shot and more people sentenced to death. The project reveals this terrifying contrast perfume N23 with the smell of gunpowder.

On the one hand, a premium packaging, on the other hand, a bed of soil from the Kommunarka execution yard inside. And a vial on the soil: a real vintage Soviet shell case filled with N23 perfume. A fragrance based on real events. With the smell of gunpowder.

Describe the PR strategy

Our strategy was to create a vivid symbol of this insane act of vandalism to mobilize both public opinion and influential people who can change the fate of the building.

So we defined our target audience:

1) the Moscow government and the owner of the building who was close to the government.

2) Leading domestic and international media (as a tool to reach the first audience)

3) The wide public not indifferent to the historical memory of Russia. (as the energy that fills theproject).

First of all, we have created a bright symbol which attracts attention. Than we have sent it to a few domestic and international media and opinion leaders. We did it in a special date – The Day of Remembrance for victims of political repressions. As a result, public outrage was so intense that the mayor's office and the owner of the building had to give up.

Describe the PR execution

When "Novaya Gazeta" came with the brief it was only 10 days left before the 30th of October - The Day of Remembrance for victims of political repressions. So it was 10 days to create everything.

The project budget was 53,000 RUB (about 900 USD). This money was to produce 30 samples of N23, which were sent to top media.

We did a premium perfume packaging: a snow-white box with a soft-touch surface. So you expect the content to match the packaging. But unfolding the paper, you see a handful of soil from the Kommunarka execution yard.

The Kommunarka execution yard is a mass grave site located not far from Moscow. It was used for the burial of people shot in the house at Nikolskaya 23. A bed of soil holds a vial made from a vintage Soviet shell case.

The vial contains perfume with the smell of gunpowder.

List the results

The opening of the elite perfumery boutique VUM in 2019 did not take place. The Moscow government has officially announced that there will be a memorial museum at Nikolskaya 23.

This means that the Russian society has received the first and very important vaccination against dictatorship and political violence.

All of this has become possible due to public outrage.

With the budget of 900 USD we have received about 200+ of such media publications as: BBC, The Times, LeMonde, El Pais and other media sources in 32 countries. The project was covered by many lifestyle media: Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, and Esquire, which have revealed the truth to potential customers of the boutique (Earned media value USD 8 mln).

46,000 people responded to our call and signed an online petition in support of the idea of a museum at Nikolskaya 23.

Please tell us how the work was designed / adapted for a single country / region / market.

The problem of perceiving the historical past is especially acute in Russia.

It was very important for us to shake the country from sleep and show society the true face of Stalin and the price of his policies. Our campaign is relevant only for Russia, because nowhere else the authorities are using the name of this terrible person in order to justify their terrible actions today.

According to a pan-national poll by Levada-?enter (Russian sociological research organization) in 2019, 46% of Russians, aged 18-24, have never heard about mass repressions in the USSR. And 70% of responders "rather positively" rate Stalin's role in the country.

We have broken this media vacuum.

Also, the campaign was based on the specific, local fact that a perfume boutique is about to be opened in the bloodiest building in Europe.

That is why it is important and relevant only for one country.

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