Trillion Dollar Campaign

Written by The Zimbabwean

Tuesday, 07 April 2009 09:27

The World's first Trillion Dollar advertising campaign...
Worthless Zim Dollars The Trillion Dollar campaign currently running in South Africa was the brainchild of ad agency TBWA Hunt Lascaris who conceived the idea of using the worthless Zimbabwean dollar as an analogy for the collapse of Zimbabwe to help create awareness and support of the Zimbabwean newspaper which has been a voice in the wilderness for Zimbabwean exiles for the past 3½ years.

IN Zimbabwe, the money is so worthless, that banknotes are cheap alternative to paper - meaning its cheaper to use the notes themselves for printing onto than buying the paper with the currency.. The Zimbabwean newspaper calls upon South Africans to Fight The Regime That Crippled a Country.

The call to arms is written on worthless Zimbabwe bank notesâ€¦ using billboards, wall posters and via direct mail to South Africa's top corporate executives. The creative and eye-catching campaign has caused a stir on the streets of Johannesburg and has been reported by media around the world.

One of the most eloquent symbols of Zimbabwe's collapse is the Z$100 trillion dollar note, a symptom of its world record inflation. This note cannot buy anything, not even a loaf of bread and certainly not any advertising, but it can become the advertising - a powerful reminder about Zimbabwe's plight and the need to hold someone accountable. The Mugabe regime has destroyed Zimbabwe. It has presided over the brutal oppression of the opposition, a cholera crisis, massive food shortages and the total collapse of the economy.

Furthermore anyone brave enough to report this has been bullied, beaten and driven into exile. One such group is The Zimbabwean newspaper'.

The Zimbabwean was started in 2005 by exiled Zimbabwean journalists and friends from around the world who came together to publish an independent weekly tabloid free from government interference and censorship to let Zimbabweans know what was really going on in their country.

By publishing outside the country they managed to escape the draconian anti-press freedom laws. Today The Zimbabwean is widely distributed inside Zimbabwe as well as throughout South Africa, Botswana and Namibia and in the UK, and is available in 52 countries as a download via Newspaper Direct.

Most importantly, they continue to provide ordinary Zimbabweans with accurate news, a vital voice in the midst of the misinformation and hate speech disseminated by ZANU PF's State-controlled propaganda machine

And herein lies the problem.

Not content with having hounded these brave journalists out of the country and forcing them to produce their paper elsewhere, the Mugabe regime slapped an import luxury' duty of over 55% on the paper. Last year Mugabe's thugs hijacked and destroyed The Zimbabwean's cross-border delivery vehicle, beating up their South African driver and torching the vehicle and its load.

While the publishers still import their newspapers into Zimbabwe, the number of Zimbabweans that can be reached is now limited by their ability to pay the duty. Meaning that the only way they can deliver the newspaper into the hands of those who it need most is by subsidising it with the copies and advertising sold in South Africa.

So, they ask South Africans to buy it, companies to subscribe to a bulk run for their outlets and offices and to consider the Zimbabwean as a powerful advertising medium to reach the millions of Zimbabweans living in South Africa who collectively wield enormous buying power. Zimbabweans in exile worldwide earn US$1.4 billion a month, and send home US$428 million a month

They ask this because they believe that The Zimbabwean is an excellent newspaper by any standards, but most importantly, because every copy sold in South Africa gets another two into Zimbabwean hands.

So when sanity returns to Zimbabwe, freedom of information will have played its part, and so will The Zimbabwean's South African supporters.

For more information please call

Liz Linsell
SA Marketing & Sales Manager

On sale weekly throughout South Africa and Zimbabwe

Tel: 021 7883414
Cell: 072 4826131
Fax2email number 086 550 3455

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