• Situation

Edward Snowden fled the US after revealing illegal global mass scale surveillance executed by American government agencies including the CIA and the NSA. The surveillance covered social media platforms, private email accounts and phone calls and was executed on a broad and general level meaning anyone could be bugged, regardless of suspicions, evidence or warrants. Mr. Snowden is a whistle blower who has exposed obvious intrusions in the right to privacy, but should he return to the US he would face criminal charges and possibly a life-long imprisonment.

• Brief

As the end of Obamas presidency was drawing near, Amnesty made an appeal for Presidential pardon of Edward Snowden, and needed attention and signatures.

• Objectives

To create an initiative that went beyond a general “sign this petition”-activity, calling on attention for the grave injustice being carried out towards Mr. Snowden.

• Implementation

We set up a site: snowdenoutofoffice.com where everyone could download messages for their phone voicemail, as well as copy and use messages for their email auto-replies and other private media channels. The site also led visitors to a page where they could sign the petition for Snowdens pardon.

• Timeline

It is customary for an American President leaving office to grant Presidential pardons to prisoners. As Barrack Obama’s second term was coming to an end Amnesty International was campaigning for the release of Edward Snowden and other whistle blowers, who were persecuted or imprisoned for sharing information about government activities breaching human rights. A lot of people are away from work during holidays which meant that the opportunity to use voice mails and out-of-office replies arose.

• Placement

The campaign primary CTA was to get people to sign the petition for a Presidential pardon of Edward Snowden. But we also wanted as many people as possible to download and use the messages, to spread the campaign further.