Is today’s state of war different to the dark past we recall with a shudder? 183 armed conflicts took place in 2023. Conflicts are spreading worldwide and hate is surging. A campaign by Innocean and the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center pleads for peace through war photos from the last century.
The pan-European print and out-of-home campaign, Capa vs War, uses images taken in the last century by worldwide praised and recognised war photographer, Robert Capa, but specifically chooses to show the ones that transcend time and can be mistaken for pictures of ongoing conflicts.
The campaign underlines the beliefs and ideas that the Hungarian photographer had for a world free of war. Capa once stated, “I hope to stay unemployed as a war photographer till the end of my life.”
Gabriel Mattar, European chief creative officer of Innocean Worldwide, explained, “Our partnership with the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center is based on looking at the world with the same curiosity and courage Capa did himself. So, for Capa vs War, we hope to make people think and feel something when looking at these ads. Because even though Capa shot the original pictures displayed in the ads more than 80 years ago, they could all sadly have been taken today. And that made us all wonder that war has been contemporary for too long.”
Kőrösi Orsolya, Capa Center managing director, added, “Through his images, Robert Capa didn’t just portray the horrors of war; he illuminated the universal desire for peace and the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity. His work served as a touching reminder that peace is not just the absence of war, but the presence of understanding, empathy, and hope. This is why we stand so firmly behind this campaign. It resonates with Capa’s beliefs, which are universal and timeless.”
The campaign’s four prints and posters use headlines to point out the visual ambiguity between past wars and current wars while also voicing a demand for peace. They will be displayed across Europe during the first quarter of 2024.
Credits
Client: Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center
Photographer: Robert Capa
Managing Director Capa Center: Kőrösi Orsolya
Advertising Agency: INNOCEAN Berlin
Chief Creative Officer: Gabriel Mattar
Excecutive Creative Director: Ricardo Wolff
Head of Art: Maso Correa Heck
Senior Art Director: Ailton Henriques
Junior Copywriter: Axel Fonteyne
Junior Art Director: Luis García-Purriños
Head of Capacity Management: Paulina Gonzalez
Motion Designer: Carlos Suárez
Innocean European Group Director Media: Jürgen Zienicke
Havas Media Network European Coordination Director: Maria Casas
Havas OOH Consultant: Piergiorgio Muller
PR: Persuasion Communications
