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The Zimbabwean's Trillion Dollar Campaign

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Posted by Eliza Williams, 1 April 2009, 10:27    Permalink    Comments (11)


Billboard advertising The Zimbabwean in Johannesburg

TBWAHuntLascaris has created this unusual outdoor campaign for The Zimbabwean, a newspaper produced by a group of exiled Zimbabwean journalists. The Zimbabwean is sold in the UK, South Africa and Zimbabwe but when entering the latter is charged an import duty of 55 per cent, making it unaffordable to the average Zimbabwean. To raise awareness of this, and to encourage more sales of the paper in South Africa, wall murals, billboards and flyers have been created in Johannesburg using the Z$100 trillion dollar note, a symbol of the country's world record inflation. Worth less than paper, The Zimbabwean has turned the money into its advertising, hoping to raise awareness of the dire situation in the country under the Mugabe regime.


Close-up of billboard

More images of the campaign can be seen online via Flickr.


Wall mural

11 Comments

really effective I thought, its laughable but equally sad to see.
Lewis
2009-04-02 16:26:28

Are they really real bank notes???
myserendipity
2009-04-02 17:34:03

Amazing!
Michael Murdoch
2009-04-03 14:01:21

I'm reading the book Mugabe by Martin Meredith and it's appalling to see how the country has been transformed from the breadbasket of South Africa to a basket case.
Eurobrsg
2009-04-03 19:48:08

Bush's fault.
Jim
2009-04-03 20:29:10

Presumably a desperate, hungry, impoverished Zimbabwean might not find this particularly clever?
jez
2009-04-04 10:33:21

good2 c that wall
morgenim
2009-04-04 17:10:46

At last there's something useful the Zimbabwe dollar can buy.
woody
2009-04-06 08:37:51

Knowing people who've had to leave the region, my impression is most will simply appreciate anything that raises awareness.

If only they had oil, someone would have intervened years ago.
Gavin Martin
2009-04-06 11:57:23

Very clever idea, it really drives home the severity of the situation and certainly raises the issue again.
Helen-LG
2009-04-06 16:06:48

It is a comedy and a tragedy. But it does allow hope- I have a painting in my house on these notes stitched together.
Art and freedom will win!
rory kilalea
2009-04-07 12:00:42

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