Since last year, Spanish government, backed up by an absolute majority in Congress and Senate, has been designing a group of measures and law reforms, commonly known by the population as “The Gag Law”. Ultimately, Spanish Congress passed this law on March 26th.

A panel of human rights experts from the United Nations said they were concerned about the Public Security Law and the Penal Code initiatives, which they say will violate Spanish people’s human rights.

One of the objectives of NoSomosDelito (WeAreNotCrime) platform against the Gag Law is public awareness of their message, especially outside Spain. To that end we created the Holographic Protest, the first of its kind in History and also a PR event initiative which through creativity, innovation, and symbolism would attract the attention of worldwide media.

On March 26th, the same day the Gag Law was approved, we launched a teaser website which encouraged users to participate in the demonstration in a virtual way: uploading their pictures, recording their shouts and sending their protest messages. At that time we did not revealed the location where the protest would take place, in order to avoid confrontation with the Spanish authorities.

On April 10th, we projected the protest on a 7x4 meters screen in front of the Parliament building, taking advantage of a filming permit. Media covered the event all around the world, while we documented it in a short film and print ads that were distributed some days later.

One of the objectives of NoSomosDelito is public awareness of their message, so they can mobilize people and collect signatures against this law, and also get support from media and governments outside Spain, in order to prevent its entry into force. That’s why our main target audience were media worldwide

The campaign was a global hit in media all around the world, with an estimated earned media (at the time of writing) of 16 million euros, and a global audience of over 800 million. It was covered by the main national and international press, TV and online media, and made into the front page and editorials of some of them, such as the French newspaper Le Monde, The New York Times and The Boston Globe. It also appeared in countless local and specialized media.

17,857 people participated in the demonstration via the website, although after that moment, participations kept rising over 20,000. The online petition for the withdrawal of the law was signed by more than 330,000 people.

Our protest gathered over 50,000 tweets and about 400 million Twitter impressions.

Ultimately, the protest was debated in a session of the Spanish Congress

On March 26th, we launched a teaser website which encouraged users to sign the online petition against the law reform and to participate in the demonstration in a virtual way.

On April 10th, we projected the Holographic Protest on a 7x4 meters screen in front of the Parliament, taking advantage of a filming permit because real demonstrations have been banned there. The projected video was produced from previously filmed and the website user-contributed material. All people were postproduced as ghost-like blueish figures to enhance the visual impact. Technical difficulties included illumination (darkness was required) and fitting of the produced video in the geography where it was projected. All distances, and camera angles had to be taken into consideration.

Media from all over the world were present to bear witness.

We also had a special cabin for NoSomosDelito spokespeople to be interview by media as real-time holograms.

The right of assembly is being undermined by the Spanish government, in an attempt to reduce the number and the magnitude of the protests against their policies. In fact, demonstrations around Parliament building have been banned for months.

The platform NoSomosDelito (WeAreNotCrime), formed by over a hundred citizens’ organizations, activists, and jurists, has the intention of informing citizens about the meaning of these reforms, which restrict fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and assembly in the name of “citizens’ security”, and to pressure the government into withdrawing them immediately.

Without a paid media budget, we had to create something that would make into the news all around the world. Something that had a powerful visual and significance, so it would be interesting for TV, press and online media, as well as viral in social platforms.

Audience were greatly drawn to the Holographic Protest, for several reasons. First of all, it was a creative way of protest which has never been done before. Secondly, it defied the banning of demonstrations in front of Parliament. We chose the most difficult place, but also the most symbolic. And finally, it also reflected in a relevant way the abolition of rights the law has introduced: flesh and blood protest will not be tolerated.

Media found the story interesting not only for its political and social content, but also from a technological point of view, and as a historical milestone in activism