Heineken crafts posters with stories, to support Reporters Without Borders

On 3 April 2014, Heineken launched an auction of 40 posters co-created with international personalities from art, entertainment and sports, including former tennis world number one Jimmy Connors and Dutch footballer Rudd Gullit. Proceeds from the auction will go to Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit that works to protect journalists and ensure freedom of information.

Titled ‘The Legendary Posters’, they are up on an eponymous custom-created website. The site allows people to bid for each poster and also tells the story of the creation of each poster through a video.

The video featured above tells the story of the Heineken poster below. It features a farmer making a small box out of the poster and writing something on it with cow’s milk. He reveals that cow’s milk is the oldest form of ‘magic ink’. He drives up an ice-capped rocky mountain, and climbs atop what was considered a sleeping volcano – before it erupted first in 1821, and most recently in 2010. He places a TV, DVD player and a generator on the ground and proceeds to wear a protective suit. Pouring some corn into the (poster) box, he climbs with it into the mouth of the volcano, and places the box against the fuming surface. In the heat, the corn pops, and the milk burns to reveal the word POPP on the box. He climbs back out to watch a movie atop the mountain, while munching on the pop corn. The title of the poster appears as a super: ‘The one that went to the movies Iceland style’.

The poster created with Connors shows him ‘playing’ fire tennis against the poster mounted on a board in a tennis court. View the poster and its creation video here:

The 40 posters will also be exhibited at several locations around Amsterdam until the end of the auction period.

Sandrine Huijgen, global communications director, Heineken, said, “Legendary posters is a fresh idea. Its diversity, unconventionality and positivity are such a testament to how Heineken sees the world - by crossing your borders you enrich your life with amazing experiences. These posters went through quite a few experiences we would all like to live one day, but what fired us up the most, was to make these experiences support freedom of expression in partnership with Reporters Without Borders.”

Mark Bernath, ECD, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, added, “Normally, we send relatively resourceful bearded men out into the world to gain some perspective and take part in a legendary journey. This time we decided to see what would happen if we sent a few pieces of paper instead. And in the process raise money for an organisation that is equally interested in finding out what's going on out there in the world.”

Credits

Client: Heineken
Global brand director: Gianluca di Tondo
Global communication director: Sandrine Huijgen
Global communication manager: Jules Macken
Global digital manager: Dario Gargiulo

Creative agency: Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam
ECDs: Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy
Creative Directors: Theirry Albert, FaustinClaverie
Interactive Creative Director: EduPou
Art Director: Vasco Vicente
Copywriter: Evgeny Primachenko

Production house: Park Pictures UK (lead production company)
Lead director: Camille Herren (Park Pictures)
Editing:The Gentleman's Club
Lead editor: Will Judge, The Gentleman’s Club
Audio post: Wave Studios Amsterdam
Post production: MPC Amsterdam