Within a few months, Tunisia went from decades of dictatorship and 1 political party to its first ever free elections with 1,600 candidates and over exposure to countless political messages and advertising. As a direct result of the confusion that arose, many had completely lost interest in politics. Only 55% at best were planning to vote, thus forgetting the main objective of the Revolution: Democracy for Tunisia.Engagement Citoyen, a non-profit organisation that aims to promote the Tunisians' democratic awakening, asked us to turn apathy into action and inspire a higher turnout at upcoming elections. We therefore needed to re-activate people's sense of political engagement with a strong and effective reminder. Something that would break through the political advertising clutter and convey a simple but powerful message. So we set up a provocative and visually engaging stunt and showed everyone that if they didn't vote, their revolution was in vain.

The results were thrilling as the message immediately made the headline news. The video made an exceptional 30% share rate (source: Share tracker powered by Unruly) and generated 10s of thousands of calls for action, +461% visits on Engagement Citoyen's website and countless media coverage. People immediately engaged on social media. Many decided to change their profile picture to our second poster. Within a few hours, getting out and voting had become the ultimate phase of the revolutionary process. In the evening, it was aired on all Tunisian and Arabic TV news. The next day it spread worldwide.Most Importantly, we made people take that final crucial step and actually vote: an 88% turnout was reached, which was far higher than the expected 55%.

A few days before polling, we put back Ben Ali's giant poster in La Goulette. And we let people experience the real danger of abstention: the return of dictatorship. It was a very special poster designed to provoke protests and lead people to take action. People reacted as we expected and torn the poster down. When they did so, they discovered another poster underneath: 'BEWARE, DICTATORSHIP CAN RETURN. ON OCTOBER 23RD, VOTE.'To reach a wider audience, the event was filmed and posted online under the title 'Ben Ali is back'. We also used PR, by inviting influencial activists to the event, and sending all images and videos to medias and journalists. Given the huge success of the campaign, we were offered free standard outdoor and bus advertising for the second poster. Finally, Engagement Citoyen's website gave neutral informations on the candidates' programs.