We the People:a viral campaign

In support of the campaign to celebrate the 15th birthday of South Africa's Constitution, independent strategist Sarah Britten has developed the strategy of 'We the People', with Media Monitoring Africa's William Bird. A series of five images are being released this week, one per day.

21 Feb 2012

Released on Monday, 20 February 2012: this refers to a recent incident at a gym.

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According to Britten (@Anatinus), in order to have a campaign that not only targeted 'desktop activists', it involved the Daily Sun at an early stage and MXit was core to the strategy. The budget is small, so it relies heavily on social media, media partners and the support of individual celebrities.

Released on Tuesday, 21 February 2012: this alludes to the lack of freedom in a neighbouring country.

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Flow Communications developed the website, while Native made the MXit campaign happen. Brian Ferns designed the logo and the 'serious' ads, while Unisa student Malibongwe Masinga and Andrew O'Donoghue of Original Forever assisted with the cheekier viral ads. The campaign will be releasing one ad every day this week, each of which uses a recent event to illustrate aspects of the constitution.

Its partners include Parliament, Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, the US diplomatic mission to South Africa, RAPCAN, the Print Media Association, Kagiso Media, Media24, M-Net, Avusa, The Children's Institute, SERI and the Centre for Child Law, Casac and individual media personalities including Gareth Cliff and Loyiso Gola.

For more, go to www.wethepeople.org.za, Facebook or follow @WeThePeople_ZA on Twitter .