There’s two unwritten rules when it comes to crafting successful advertising.

1.Your execution must stand out and be easily recognizable. 2.Your execution must never merge with the ‘actual’ content. Channels make a big effort to ensure these rules are followed, especially newspapers. Yet the power of our idea laid on the opposite principles, it jumped out because it blended in.Publications saw it too and broke their own editorial rules for it. They allowed us to match their typefaces and style, and donated their editorial space to our cause. The simplicity of this symbol meant it could effortlessly work across channels.

On June 14 2017 unsafe cladding in Grenfell Tower caught fire. The building burned for 60 hours before the fire was extinguished and 72 people lost their lives.

In the aftermath, Justice4Grenfell was established by community members to honour their memories and seek justice for those that died.

But three years later, no one had been held responsible and court proceedings and inquests were bogged down in technicalities of accountability. The groundswell of grief, mourning and outrage in the news media had been replaced by a conversation around building materials and practices (specifically around the cladding used in the construction of the building).

The people behind the disaster had fallen off the news agenda. To keep up the pressure for justice, we needed to get the human story back in the news. And as Grenfell is a grassroots community organisation, do it all with zero budget.

The brief was clear – make the people who died at Grenfell news again.

So we asked UK newspapers to give up one column inch to do just that. In this space we created a powerful symbol – their names in newsprint in the shape of the Grenfell Tower.

The only messaging apart from the names was “On June 14th 2017 these 72 people died. Their names should still be news”.

The aim was to humanise the victims of the Grenfell disaster to keep up pressure to get justice for those who died, and their families and loved ones.

We wanted to reach the whole nation, specifically three pools of people: Adults (35-50), who lived through the tragedy and would easily relate. Teenagers / young adults (15-35), known for their commitment to activism and fight for justice. Politicians, those truly able to make change happen.

Our media choices were simple. Print national newspapers and OOH, to ensure an impact across adults. Social media and influencers, to make noise with the younger generation and put pressure on politicians.

We needed a symbol that was simple, impactful, and sensitive to work across these channels and audiences.

To get the names of the victims into the news, we needed to find a new way of working with editorial. Usually there has to be a clear delineation between editorial and other content. But for this execution leading newspapers around the UK broke their own rules and matched our tower to their typefaces and editorial style.

Leading newspapers donated space for our typographic tower and adapted it to their own editorial style. These ran around the 3rd anniversary of Grenfell in The Sun, The Times, and The Daily Mail.

This small act became something far more powerful. The simplicity of this symbol meant that it could start in news, and exist in social media and OOH–with zero media budget.

Humanising the Grenfell story has never been more important. We reminded people that Grenfell isn’t just about cladding and fire regulations – it’s about getting justice for those who died.

In newspapers the memorial reached 2.67M readership.

Online, the memorial had over 100 million media impressions.

Shared by Liam Payne, leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, model and activist Adwoa Aboah, among others.

The campaign received over 11.5k Tweets and retweets.

It generated over £500,000 in earned media in 24 hours.

It is now featured in the Museum of London’s permanent collection to make sure no one ever forgets that their names should still be news.

With zero budget, we got their names back on the media agenda and gave Justice4Grenfell a clear, simple, and powerful message that could be shared with passionate advocates all across the UK and the world.

Justice4Grenfell are grassroots, community activists. Their mission is to pressure government and bring those who caused the disaster to justice.

They needed to humanise the Grenfell story once again by getting the victim’s names back in the news.

So we asked leading newspapers to donate one column inch to make the 72 victims news again. In the column we created a newsprint tower of their names in the shape of Grenfell–with the message that they should still be news.

Leading newspapers, The Sun, The Times, and The Daily Mail, donated space for our typographic tower and adapted it to their own editorial style.

This small act became something far more powerful. The simplicity of this symbol meant that it could start in news, and exist in social media and OOH–with zero media budget.

The work is now featured in the museum of London so no one ever forgets.