For centuries, Ukrainians have a strange tradition of burning the dry grass. People still believe that burning dry grass fertilizes the soil. But in fact, it exhausts the soil, kills animals, and causes tens of thousands of wildfires every year.

But the fines were too small to override this strange tradition and have an influence on people. The penalties haven’t changed since 2009 and constitute $6 - $12.

The Parliament of Ukraine was finally set to strengthen these penalties in April 2020. For the first time since 2009. But the pandemic made them postpone the law. We didn’t want the law to be postponed. And decided to make it a priority for the whole country.

The number of wildfires in Ukraine has increased by 30% for the first 5 months of 2020, resulting in 60,000+ hectares of burnt land and deaths of thousands of animals. The human factor is considered by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine to be their primary reason: for centuries, Ukrainians have a strange tradition of burning the dry grass every Spring and Autumn.

The most efficient influence and prevention measure for Ukrainians is still the administrative penalties and fines. However, they haven’t changed since 2009. And when the Parliament of Ukraine was finally set to strengthen these penalties in April 2020, the pandemic made them postpone the law. We couldn't take the risk of getting the law postponed, as it could be delayed indefinitely. So in the midst of the pandemic, we decided to make it a priority.

The fields somewhere in the country seem distant. Therefore they might not as urgent for the Members of Parliament as other issues. But there is a field nobody can ignore and postpone — it is the football field of the country's main stadium.

Football is the most popular sport among Ukrainians. Therefore, football fields will always attract attention.

To make arson prevention a priority we decided to communicate it through the main football fields. And set a fire to them. In Photoshop of course!

To change the law we had to attract the attention of the public, the press, and the Members of Parliament themselves. Our strategy was to show these target audiences that the problem of burning the dry grass is closer than it seems and relates to the whole country. We also wanted to show how absurd and harmful this tradition is.

So we chose the football pitch of the most accomplished Ukrainian football club. Dynamo Kyiv is UEFA Cup Winners' Cup champion of 1986 and has one of the largest fan movements in Ukraine. And one morning its football field was set on fire...

On May 6th, Dynamo Kyiv posted a photo on its social media pages of the team’s home stadium with burnt grass, and the following caption: ‘FC Dynamo Kyiv decided to burn the grass on its football pitch to draw attention to arsons in the fields much larger than the football ones’. Of course, the photo was photoshopped. The post caused a media explosion by gathering 12 000+ reactions on the club’s Facebook and Instagram pages. And then something unprecedented happened. The initiative was taken up by the 5 top football clubs of the Ukrainian Premier League and even by one of the main football clubs of Belarus – Dynamo Minsk. The whole campaign took place in social networks, with 0$ media budget, but caused a media explosion and attracted the attention of the country's main media.

Two weeks later a Member of Parliament Oleksandr Marikovsky responded to our flash mob by introducing a Bill to strengthen fines on his Facebook page.

'Do you remember how several football clubs of the Ukrainian Premier League posted photos of setting fire to their football pitches? Today we introduced the Bill #3526, which will strengthen penalties for burning dry grass’ wrote Oleksandr Marikovskyi on his Facebook page. The photos of our ‘burnt’ stadiums were attached to the publication. This bill increased penalties for burning dry grass in 7 times.

On September, 1st, 2020, Bill #3526 was passed in the first reading. On February, 19th, 2021 it was passed in the second reading and came into force.

"For the first time in the history of Ukraine, the bill was passed thanks to a creative act" – said Oleksandr Marikovsky.

We got 5,000,000 impressions/day with $0 investments and got the law passed.