“… the Internet will spread the Nazi idea beyond our borders. We will use Twitter and Facebook and YouTube to find young followers.Our portals spread fake news, and we’ll manipulate search engine algorithms to move up the rankings.”
This is the content of a threatening speech given by Adolf Hitler himself to a group of young people, almost teens in the latest video conceived by Ogilvy & Mather Berlin for the german civil movement Gesight Zeigen!.
“Hitler’s Online Strategy” web film, the latest provocative piece framed into the Hitler’s Hashtag campaign, very clearly illustrates exactly what right-wing groups and activists in the net are doing today. They try to influence teens through social media with their propaganda in order to get in contact with them, to win them as followers.
The web film has been launched on 5th March on the platforms usually employed by the radical right winged propaganda: Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and YouTube.
The goal is spreading it virally and through PR support in the network. The film will also be showed in selected cinemas to the Nazi regime propaganda movies in the 30-40’s.
In fact, The original footage used in the spot comes from the Nazi propaganda film “Triumph of the Will”, by the director Leni Riefenstahl (1934).
The spot is flanked by a motif showing a Nazi-style hashtag. The message shown here: “Fascism conquers the net Let’s stop that.” The provocative visual is meant for social media and also used as a print motif and on Citylight posters at selected locations in Germany.
The influencer platform indaHash supports the campaign providing free coverage on its own platform. “Microinfluencers in particular are very committed when they are enthusiastic about something and they are an ideal support for viral campaigns,” explains Marina Kellner, Business Development Director DACH at indaHash.
In addition, Gesicht Zeigen! shows on his website several motives for sharing. Social media users can post them through their accounts, positioning themselves this way against right-winged propaganda on The Net.
Provocative creativity
“We want to achieve and activate the maximum media attention for this topic, which is why we let Hitler explain the online strategy of the right wing, and no one else can tell us the danger so clearly,” said Stephan Vogel, CCO Ogilvy Germany. explaining the creative idea for this spot.
“This – admittedly provocative – spot should be a wake-up call: Attention, we must not leave the network to the right maniacs.We must defend our freedom online and offline against hatred and hate speech,” commented Sophia Oppermann, one of the two managing directors of Gesicht zeigen!.
“Our goal is to show the dangers of law with this film and to win new members for our club, because we need more people who are involved, and actively against the law in public,” adds Rebecca Weis, also CEO of Gesicht zeigen!.
The aim of this organization is helping to promote greater respect and tolerance in Germany and to combat racism, anti-Semitism and right-wing violence. Gesicht zeigen! does it through campaigns, continuing education, educational work and many events and workshops. The association has been committed since its foundation in 2000 against inhuman ideologies and for an open society.
Some actions rising awareness before the web film launch
Just before the launch of the campaign, Gesicht zeigen! in collaboration with the Berlin exhibition center Haus am Lützowplatz carried out a provocative flagging of the building with the Nazi hashtag motif.
This kind of flagging evokes memories of the darkest German history and drew attention to the campaign there last weekend. The film was also presented exclusively to a selected audience for the first time.
With the exhibition “Right” Haus am Lützowplatz currently deals critically with the problem of the right-winged populism.
Not less provocative, the Mein Kampf 2016 rebranded edition
Ogilvy started a joint action hand in hand with Gesicht Zeigen with the publication of the book “Mein Kampf – gegen Rechts”.
At the time when the copyrights of Hitler’s propaganda went out and everyone could reissue the book, Gesicht Zeigen! and the agency together with the Europa-Verlag published this “Mein Kampf rebranded book”. The award-winning work put together reports of the experiences of activists who are engaged in Germany against right-winged propaganda and violence.
“People are fleeing war and terror,” says Andreas Hollstein, “and our constitution says we have to help them.” Hollstein is a German mayor who has granted asylum to more refugees than he is legally required to. He is also one of eleven authors of Mein Kampf Against Racism, a series of books released at the same time as the new version of Hitler’s manifesto.
Other contributions include former Afghan refugee and MTV host Wana Limar, Cross of Merit recipient Jose Paca, critic Robert Koall, and Irmela Mensah-Schramm, who has removed over 130,000 instances of Nazi graffiti over 30 years, as she wishes “to destroy hate.”
Published by Europa Verlag and made available in every bookshop in Germany, 1€ from every sale goes to Gesicht Zeigen.
Most important awards earned by the joint project Gesicht Zeigen!- Ogilvy against right winged propaganda are the Grand Prix of the Art Directors Club Europe and the title of “Best Campaign in the World” by the Sabre Global Award, the world’s most prestigious PR competition. In addition, the Mein Kampf rebranded campaign received golds at international creative competitions such as the Clio Awards, LIA, the One Show and the Eurobest Festival.
With the “Hitler’s Online Strategy ” web film and flagging hashtag Ogilvy Berlin turns once more the icons of the Nazi movement into symbols to fight for the respect that every human being deserve.
Image over the headline.- Caption from “Hitler’s Online Strategy” web film. © Ogilvy & Mather Berlin.
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