In Georgia, the Law prohibits selling bladed weapons to under-age children, but the Law is not fulfilled. We needed to raise awareness about this problem among society and the Government. The campaign consisted of the viral video, followed by the petition link, demanding imposing strict laws. Afterwards we put the instruments (main material of the campaign) on the main avenue of Tbilisi in front of one of the oldest and biggest schools, where people directly signed the petition and experienced the “sound of indifference”.

For the first time in Georgia, a social problem was communicated by creative agency’s independent will.

The violence rate among Georgian teenagers is getting considerably high year by year. This is encouraged by bladed weapons being easily accessible to everyone, due to low selling prices and widespread distribution in urban areas. In Tbilisi, there are about 50 shops situated in places where the traffic of school-aged children is the highest.

According to the official statistics, in the last three years:

* More than 540 bladed weapons have been recovered from Tbilisi schools

* About 80 people have been killed by bladed weapons, out of which 10 were teenagers.

Society and the Government have shown indifference towards this alarming problem.

The campaign had two objectives:

1. Raising awareness about the accessibility of bladed weapons.

2. Forcing the Government to make changes to the Law - making bladed weapons accessible only in specialized stores and prohibiting selling them to the under-aged.

We created the sound of indifference, sending a wake-up call to the society and the Government.

We carried out an experiment: we asked teenagers to buy bladed weapons in the streets of Tbilisi under our supervision. As a result, within a couple of hours, they purchased almost 100 items (knives, electroshock weapons and other sharp objects) without any obstacles.

Using mentioned items, we created a weapon orchestra, consisting of 11 musical instruments playing Georgian folk song that every Georgian has been taught in childhood. With a very jingly and merry melody, the song lyrics are telling us that “If somebody says something bad about you, let his heart be torn by knife”. The song is so common that most people do not even realize the message it carries. Our indifferent attitude towards the song lyrics is also vivid when it come to the accessibility of bladed weapons.

Everyone in Tbilisi walks past the selling points of bladed weapons and have absolutely no reaction. The same way, we pay no attention to the song, popular among many generations and still taught in kindergartens. In connecting these two points (crime and song lyrics), which vividly presents the inactivity of our society and Government, we created the sound of indifference and showed people how their apathy sounds.

MESSAGE: HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE SOUND OF INDIFFERENCE?

More than half of Georgia’s population lives in the capital and the official statistics about teenage violence include data only about Tbilisi. Therefore, we targeted people living there. By raising awareness and creating a viral campaign demanding the changes in the Law, our main goal was to make the Government act accordingly. Creative approach to solving the problem was awarded with the free media from all the big TV stations and e-media in Georgia.

We carried out an experiment: we asked teenagers to buy bladed weapons in the streets of Tbilisi under our supervision. As a result, within a couple of hours, they purchased almost 100 items (knives, electroshock weapons and other sharp objects) without any obstacles.

The bladed weapons, bought within experiment were used to create an eleven-instrument “orchestra”, which involved sound engineers and other experts, working hard for three months in order to obtain the precise and well-crafted sound.

Facebook was our primary media, as long as its penetration is 70% in urban population and it was the right place for evoking public discussion.

After 1 week, the video content was activated in real life as a “Museum of Indifference”, letting people directly interact and sign the petition, which was followed by earned TV coverage, e-media and user generated content.

The campaign earned 100% free media - all the mainstream media channels, including TV and digital broadcasters, covered the campaign. Thousands of Georgians (including dozens of influencers) signed the petition and shared the campaign video on their social media accounts, encouraging people to step up and sign up for the change. Within the first 2 days of the campaign, the Government officials contacted the agency and discussed the topic, promising coherent changes to the law.

The major Georgian brands joined the initiative by signing the petition and demonstrating their support on their Facebook pages.

The hearts of more than a million people have been touched, making them to mirror their indifference.

Three months after launching campaign, the Prime Minister of Georgia publicly announced that after the request from civil society, (meaning our campaign), the Government will soon adopt a new Law on selling bladed weapons in the streets of Georgia.