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Colombian government's ad campaign targeting rebel groups

The FARC: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia which was founded in the 1960′s remains the largest as well as the oldest insurgent group in the Americas.  Since his election in 2002, President Alvaro Uribe has moved aggressively to combat the insurgent groups and bringing the rebel group’s numbers from an estimated 30,000 to an estimated range of 3,000 to 8,000 armed rebels.  One key point of the government strategy was to get guerrillas to defect.  Colombia’s vice minister for defense, Sergio Jaramillo is credited with recognizing the need for an organized and strategic ad campaign to drive the ongoing demobilization effort and approached the agency Lowe SSP3 in 2006. 

Containing interviews with demobilized guerrillas and and specific messages to influence viewers, these campaigns are focused on radio and satellite TV broadcasts of soccer games viewed by much of the country as well as members of the rebel groups.  Here is a look….

 While Lowe SSP3′s work is pro bono, Colombia’s Ministry of Defense does maintain an annual paid media budget for campaigns to distribute fliers in rural towns as well as to buy airtime during soccer games and news programs watched by high level members of the guerrilla groups such as the FARC.

I am always impressed be the creativity and work behind many ad campaigns, and even more so for pro bono work.  These are just some of the many tools that hopefully will bring the conflict in Colombia to an end soon.