“Digital Is Real” was created as an initiative of the Provincial Office for Press and Communication, in coordination with other social institutions, including Forum Prävention. At its core was a campaign to raise awareness of digital and virtual violence and of the reality that is also created through words and actions online.
Digital violence often remains abstract as long as it is seen merely as a screen-based phenomenon. The core idea was therefore to show that behind every digital presence there is a real person, and that words and actions online have real consequences for real lives. From this emerged the task of giving this topic a strong verbal and visual form.
The campaign slogan “Digital Is Real,” developed by FREIUNDZEIT, condenses the central message into a single sentence. It makes unmistakably clear that violence in digital spaces has real effects. From this idea, the visual concept also emerged: people were photographed in a way that made them appear half person and half emoji, as a symbol of the fact that behind every digital presence stands a real human being.
The campaign was developed primarily for DOOH (Digital Out Of Home), digital advertising in public space and was complemented by accompanying actions and postcards. We are especially pleased that the campaign became such a strong success and was able to give the issue of digital violence significant public visibility.