"I'm not afraid, Mr. President, because they can't kill me twice."

When Javier was alive, he was a journalist. When he came back from the dead, he did it as an influencer: his appearance was the main message. The world has seen a lot of virtual influencers - this is the first one created, not as a means to entertain, but as a necessity to carry on the mission of the person that was murdered, and to bring life to our creative idea.

"They try to silence us, but we're #STILLSPEAKINGUP"

Investigating corruption and the drug trade has cost 130+ journalists their lives since 2007. Javier Valdez, killed in 2017; one of the most iconic ones.

Every journalist’s murder brings more silence. In some Mexican states, there are no voices left to speak up freely, giving the narco-governments the upper hand.

Propuesta Cívica AC, the only Mexican NGO that provides legal support to the families of murdered journalists, looked for a way to promote their cause, and help the journalists continue to speak up. Associated to RSF (reporters without borders)

There’s no better way to protect the journalist’s lives than creating a culture of a proactive society, demanding access to proper information, and raising their voices; but never remaining asleep.

Therefore, we targeted Mexican and International media, intending to reignite the conversations around free speech and journalists’ protection, so we provided them with powerful video content that will undoubtedly shake complacency.

THE ONLY JOURNALIST THAT CAN SPEAK UP WITHOUT FEAR IN MEXICO IS A DEAD ONE.

Can a murdered journalist refuse to be silenced? What if it only made their voice louder, while also helping protect their colleagues?

Using AI, we brought Javier Valdez murdered in 2017, and his work, back to life. Instead of becoming silent, Javier became a symbol of resistance, and even more — a face and voice behind whom his other colleagues could anonymously continue speaking up.

To inspire credibility and to achieve the involvement of our prominent journalists targeted, in terms of execution, we crafted not only an identical image thanks to Deepfake, but also we successfully recreated his voice, by recording several voices of male members of Javier Valdez’s family.

The Mexican population is in a state of denial:

After years of corrupt governments tolerating violence from organized crime, murders became normal.

Research based on two-year tracked searches and social media conversations showed a huge drop of interest on related matters: Less than 3% on “murdered Journalists”, “freedom of expression”, amongst Mexican internet users.

We analyzed the stakeholders’ responses to different pieces of communication. Testimonials are proven to be more effective because of their connection to a real person's story. That’s how we learned that no one would be better than a murdered journalist to become our influencer. Among them, Javier Valdez was the most iconic, because of the depth of the investigations he did, and the relevance of the media he worked for.

We targeted prominent journalists, so they could be the first to simultaneously spread the message with a powerful call to action.

#StillSpeakingUp

According to Mexican traditions, Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is when deceased relatives and friends return to visit their families.

For the president it wasn’t a relative nor a friend, but Javier Valdez - a journalist murdered for his investigations; who, thanks to AI, came back on this day in 2020 to demand justice for himself and his colleagues, and free speech for everyone.

The project ran in main Mexican and international news, including national TV, social media, and news websites, generating 349M impressions in less than 1 week.

This campaign is part of the #StillSpeakingUp platform created to use the identities of murdered journalists to protect the safety of the ones at risk today.

April 2019. Murdered journalists’ Twitter accounts revived

Feb 2020. The press conference w/ pilot video of revived Javier

Nov 2020. Day of the Dead: Javier addresses the president on National TV

THIS IS OUR BEST ACHIEVEMENT:

Due to media pressure, trials were reactivated, leading to 6 murderers being convicted for crimes against journalists in Mexico, for the first time.

349 Million Organic Impressions.

+40K unique authors

84% positive sentiment

5M USD Earned Media

All 3 main news channels gave prime time to Javier’s video.

30 of Mexico’s most relevant journalists targeted gave prime time space to Javier’s video, and interviewed Javier’s widow and Propuesta Civica NGO directors about the initiative.

More than 100 international media outlets published Javier’s video.

This campaign is part of the #StillSpeakingUp a Twitter platform created to use the identities of murdered journalists to protect the safety of the ones at risk today.

According to Mexican traditions, Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is when deceased relatives and friends return to visit their families.

Sadly, with a big part of the country mostly ruled by narco-governments, murders became the norm.

Therefore, we decided to launch our action on the Day of the Dead, but this time this dead man didn’t come to visit family or friends, but to give an urgent message to Mexico’s President López Obrador.

“I’m not afraid, Mr. President because I can’t be killed twice.”

A message to shake Mexican society’s complacency which, although the unusually high number of journalist murders, seems to be indifferent rather than facing such a tragic reality that affects its right to be informed.