Red phone is a small scale guerrilla stunt that was done in several prime time TV programming, such as the main news and the debate show of Telma TV, a private national TV station. During the TV programming a Red phone was placed besides the news anchor and it ranged with a purpose to interrupt the news, but the anchor picked and hanged up with the purpose of presenting Telma TV as an independent TV station, serving objective news. For one day the Red phone served as a symbol of independent journalism

Telma TV is a private national TV station in Macedonia fighting for higher ratings in a country where the freedom of press has been an issue for 20 years. The latest wire-tapping scandal has been a peak moment for Telma to position itself as a independet medium that belongs to no side.

Having low budget for the campaign we used a simple red phone that was placed in the studio, which ranged life during the program in order to present the interruption of ordered news, but the anchors ignored it and hanged up, thus presenting that Telma TV does not accept any pressure on its news.

The Red phone created a massive response on the social media with over 10.000 shares in just one day after the event took place. People were greeting the action, praising the journalists for finally taking a stand against political media pressure. Other TV stations reported the event as news. In just 24 hours the red phone started to generate its own content. The ratings of Telma TV rose by 250%

The promotion was conducted for one day only, and it was done in the main news at 18:00, the late news at 21:00 and in the political debate show in prime time. All the anchors of the program repeated the stunt with the purpose of emphasising the message. The stunt served as a teaser and was revealed the following day by the Managing Director of the TV station who gave explanation about the main message, i.e. that TV Telma is an independent medium presenting objective news.