On the 21st March we converted our broadcast and social media channels into a platform to talk about colour; skin colour.

We did this by converting all of our content on these channels into black and white, for 24 hours.

Every scheduled program was converted into black and white. Every ad was removed and replaced with bespoke interviews that featured young South Africans sharing their views on race and human rights. We created bespoke channel idents using song lyrics in different languages that highlight the need to look beyond race. And the conversation we enabled was integrated into a ticker-tape on the television broadcast.

The conversation trended through-out the day, a day where the youth traditionally disengage from social media and broadcast. We achieved 21.8 million Twitter impressions in 24 hours. The conversation was picked up and added to by people from all over the world.

We encouraged and empowered a conversation on one of the continent’s most powerful youth-focused media platforms. And the conversation is continuing with even more race-focused content on the channel and across our social media platforms. The brand added depth to its reputation as a youth-entertainment channel among an audience that was never exposed to the early history of MTV as a youth-focused agitator.