We produced tear gas scented candles and sent them to hundreds of people from different sections of the society, primarily activists, influencers, Gezi victims and journalists, who had been exposed to tear gas during the protests. When lit, the stench of tear gas coming from the candles triggered their memories from the days of Gezi Park Protests, bringing back the feelings along with them. The call-to-action text on the packages invited people to share their feelings on Twitter using the hashtag #BiberGaz?Kokunca (#WhenItSmellsOfTearGas) that was printed on the candles.

We produced tear gas scented candles and sent them to hundreds of people from different sections of the society, primarily activists, influencers, Gezi victims and journalists, who had been exposed to tear gas during the protests. When lit, the stench of tear gas coming from the candles triggered their memories from the days of Gezi Park Protests, bringing back the feelings along with them. The call-to-action text on the packages invited people to share their feelings on Twitter using the hashtag #BiberGaz?Kokunca (#WhenItSmellsOfTearGas) that was printed on the candles.

The project created great hype on social media and grabbed the headlines of leading national and international newspapers and news websites. Thus, we reached millions of people with zero media budget. Due to the scale of public awareness that was aroused against disproportionate use of tear gas by the Turkish police, the Turkish government silently cancelled their order for 1.9 million tear gas canisters.

In order to create awareness against the gigantic tear gas order the Turkish government placed to use against the public, we wanted to remind people of the Gezi Park Protest days, a time when the police used extreme amounts of tear gas. So, we created tear gas scented candles and sent them via direct mail to social influencers, such as journalists and activists who participated in the Gezi Park Protest.

Sense of smell is the strongest memory trigger and thus we could make people remember their memories from the Gezi Park Protests by getting them to smell tear gas again. Thus we decided to create tear gas scented candles.

The Gezi Park Protests were one of the biggest social protests in Turkish history. There have been numerous cases of severe injuries and death caused by the extreme amounts of tear gas used by the police. However, the strife it caused lost its popularity and fell into oblivion in time. Meanwhile the Turkish government placed an order of 1.9 million more tear gas canisters from South Korea. On the second anniversary of Gezi Park Protests, Amnesty International wanted to arouse social awareness against this decision taken by the government.