In December, Ogilvy Madrid launched a game called Save The Fleet. The game is the antithesis of the popular game, Battleship. You try to save as many lives as possible lives rather than sink them.
Last week, donations from the game saved the lives of 43 people last week who were on a boat trying to reach land.
Ogilvy’s game supports the work of Humanitarian Maritime Rescue (HMR) [Salvamento Maritimo Humanitario (SMH) in Spanish], an NGO whose missions is “to safeguard and care for the life, dignity, and rights of people in transit”. Donations from the game paid for the first mission of Aita Mari 2024, the HMR rescue boat, to carry out the rescue operation in the central Mediterranean, saving 43 people in an SAR Libya zone. The rescued people in the SAR Libya area come from countries such as Egypt, Sudan, and Bangladesh. Despite extreme fatigue and dehydration and facing dreadful ocean conditions, their general health is not serious.
Iñigo Mijangos, coordinator of HMR, stated, “We are at a critical moment, a new stage that involves facing the challenges inherent in a European migration pact where there is no room for human rights. We need to renew and expand the momentum that society has always given us to continue defending that the values of European solidarity and humanity must also be present in our borders.”
The Save the Fleet campaign is being funded by HMR through the Goteo platform, in which more than 40,000€ have been obtained in its crowdfunding. Ogilvy Madrid is working on the campaign pro bono.
The Aita Mari boat arrived on Tuesday at the port of Ortona in the province of Chieti after four days of sailing. Its landing was uncomplicated and agile. The 43 rescued people have been handed over to local authorities and border administrative processes will begin. In most cases, they receive an expulsion order, that is, they are not offered international protection.
In the first month of 2024, it is estimated that more than 100 people have died or disappeared in the Central Mediterranean according to the IOM. HMR is asking that European authorities take responsibility for maintaining a rescue device in this area instead of financing with public money the containment of people in countries where human rights are violated. It is also appealing to social consciousness to understand the seriousness of the situation in the Mediterranean and the need to create humanitarian corridors that allow safe migration.
Sandra Sánchez and Sonia Herraez, creatives from Ogilvy Madrid, said that the game was born with the intention of giving voice to the humanitarian aid work carried out by the NGO HMR in the Mediterranean. “This type of organisation ventures blindly into the sea every day in search of shipwrecked people and we couldn’t help but see a similarity between this reality and the mechanics of the mythical game of sinking ships. More than 2,600 migrants die each year in the Mediterranean waters, so we decided to turn the dynamic around and launch a solidarity Christmas game that would help raise funds to prevent more deaths.”
The campaign, and the game, hopes to continue to gain resources to save lives as well as visibility to demand that European authorities adopt effective measures that guarantee the human rights of all migrant people.
Credits:
Client: HMR
Client Team: Mikel San Sebastián, Iñigo Mejangos, Leire Motriko.
Agency: Ogilvy Madrid
Creative General Director: Roberto Fara
Executive Creative Directors: Juanpe Moreno& Javier Senovilla
Creative Directors: Marc Xifré & Víctor Vázquez
Creative Team: Sonia Herraez and Sonia Sánchez
Account Director: MªLuisa Fernández-Villaverde
Account Executives: Pablo López-Tafall and Blanca Grosso
Chief PR & Influence: Elvis Santos
Ogilvy PR: Christian Martínez, Quique Caballero & Laura Cuenca
