We collected hundreds of heart-wrenching real letters written by real soldiers who fought in the pacific battles of WWII.We then placed actual-sized replicas of the letters inside bus stops.More letters were pinned, along with photographs, on a 20-metre wall for people to read and even take away with them.Thousands of New Zealanders received one of the letters in the mail enclosed in a genuine-looking envelope.Finally on the eve of the show’s premiere we recreated a large aerial dogfight, which used pyrotechnics, two Japanese planes and a New Zealand Kittyhawk over New Zealand’s largest harbour.

The campaign had the desired effect of making people think about ‘The Pacific’ on an emotional level. It was talked about on the National news, online and newspapers.“…so far, that marketeer’s letter from Jonny on Okinawa has told me more about what war is than Hanks, Spielberg and their US$150 million budget” – Greg Dixon, Time Out magazine.Thousands of people attended the dogfight and ONE’s ratings skyrocketed. 25% of New Zealand watched the premiere, ONE experienced a ratings increase of 8.3 points when all other channels decreased and 40% of traffic to ONE’s online ‘on-demand’ service was for ‘The Pacific’.