People bristle at the word, corruption, but too many allow it through their silence and the corrupt feel that they are untouchable. Corruption is a long-standing problem in South America and recent political and economic strike has made inaction against corruption more urgent.
FCB Brasil is helping O Estadao de São Paulo, one of Brazil’s most-read newspapers, to change create awareness and action against corruption by making the problem personal.
The agency has created The Corruption Converter, an interactive digital platform that shows exactly how much corruption costs each Brazilian.
The tool allows people to calculate the benefits and services that could have been provided with the funds had they not been diverted because of corruption. It automatically converts the amounts reported in articles about corruption into objects, such as ambulances, vaccines, school meals and medication.
“The goal is to help Brazilians understand how this money could have impacted their lives. It’s a new and provocative way of providing information. We are using technology and innovation to go beyond news,” stated Marcelo Moraes, marketing and advertising director at Estadão.
For example, the tool shows users that R$316 million of diverted funds could have purchased 2,394,686 doses of the H1N1 vaccine, 15,800 ambulances or 142,342,342 school lunches. Next to the amounts, the Corruption Converter shows news stories from the paper’s website about situations where this money could have made a difference and improved people’s lives.
The code written into the Estadão portal monitors users on the website and detects when they are reading articles containing words related to corruption and politics, as well as figures in Reals (R$). If the article contains both of these types of words and figures, it will be deemed eligible, prompting the portal to highlight all of the relevant figures. As a user hovers the cursor or swipes a finger (in the mobile version) over the numbers, the Corruption Converter tool pops up, listing items, goods or improvements that could have been purchased with the amount in question.
The Corruption Converter is the first of its kind, and aims to make the numbers associated with corruption tangible, and to show the scope of that corruption.
Credits:
Agency: FCB Brasil
Chief Executive Officer: Joanna Monteiro
Chief Executive Director: Fábio Simões
Art Director: Rafael Beretta, Andre Vervloet
Copywriter: Romero Cavalcanti
Graphics Production: João Albertini, Diego Bischoff, Daniela Fonseca & Camila Galdencio
Reviewer: Miriam Audi, Paula Costa & Luciana Palmieri
Art Buyer: Tina Castro, Carol Silva & Daniel Goncalves
Projects: Gerson Lupatini & Suelen Mariano
Technology: Gerson Lupatini & Márcio Bueno
Creative Technologist: Victor Hugo Odo
Digital Production: UmStudio.com
Account management: Cris Pereira, Anna Santana, Henrique Silva, Juliana Peralta & Renato Coelho
RTV: Charles Nobili, Pedro Lazzuri, Ricardo Magozo, Natasha Zaminiani & Mariana Carneiro
Motion: Thiago Scalon “Mineiro” & Rodrigo Resende
Editor: Thiago Scalon “Mineiro” & Dudu Doria
Photography: Antonio Brasiliano
Client: Estadao (Estadão Digital)
Client Approval: Flavio Pestana, Marcelo Moraes & Marcela Dalla Torre
