Audience were greatly drawn to the content, for several reasons. First of all, it was a creative way of protest which had never been done before. Secondly, it defied the banning of demonstrations around Parliament building. We chose the most difficult place, but also the most symbolic. 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.

The main objective of the campaign was getting media around the world to cover our story. We achieved that goal by providing them a creative, first of its kind demonstration that defied physical limitations and government repression rules.

The Holographic Protest campaign created a virtual demonstration that needed real people. In order to make it happen, we also needed their direct participation.

Another campaign objective was getting people to sign the online petition against Spanish Gag Law, which also required a direct action.

Thanks to the relevance of the idea, we managed to obtain another direct response from the audience: the worldwide spreading of the message in social media.

We created the Holographic Protest, the first of its kind.

On March 26th, the same day the Gag Law was approved, 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: 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 in front of the Parliament, taking advantage of a filming permit. We chose the most difficult place (demonstrations have been banned there), but also the most symbolic. The projected video was produced from previously filmed and the website user-contributed material.

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

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.

The Spanish Citizens’ Securities Law’s Reform (commonly known as The Gag Law) is an attack on the right of freedom of assembly. This measure restricts citizens’ liberties, and criminalizes their right to protest. Turning a right into an offence for which people can be pursued, detained, and judged.

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 generate criticism and obtain support for its claims from media and governments outside Spain, in order to prevent its entry into force.