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Ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi Tel Aviv is calling on creative minds to help Israelis and Palestinians to resolve their dispute, an objective that political leaders on both sides have so far failed to achieve in 60 years of conflict. Entitled "The Impossi
Ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi Tel Aviv is calling on creative minds to help Israelis and Palestinians to resolve their dispute, an objective that political leaders on both sides have so far failed to achieve in 60 years of conflict.
Entitled "The Impossible Brief", the project invites people to come up with ideas to bring the two sides closer by using an approach known as crowdsourcing.
"Rather than 'out of date' policies, we need 'out of the box solutions," says "The Impossible Brief" website.
"Let's show the world that creative minds at their best can inspire even political leaders."
People are invited to explain their big idea and upload it to the site.
The most inspiring solutions will be selected by a joint panel of Israeli Jews and Arabs from Saatchi & Saatchi Group, and will be presented to members of the Palestinian and Israeli parliaments.
There is also a Facebook page, where a lively discussion has kicked off.
Suggestions range from the plain and practical ("Football instead of a bullet") to more lateral approaches, such as having Jewish and Palestinian leaders leaders form a team to solve the ongoing conflict in India's Kashmir. "Working as a team and looking at similar issues without their conditioning kicking in will create an openness of mind and approach", writes the idea's originator, Vikram Oberoi, on Facebook.
Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community - a crowd - through an open call. A famous - and successful - example is "Age of Stupid" - a film about the devastating effects of climate change that raised $1.2 million via crowdsourcing, and it also used this approach to distribute and exhibit it around the world.
Ad agencies have deployed this technique before. In 2007, Droga5 worked with the United Nation's children's agency UNICEF on the Tap Project, based on the idea that restaurants would ask their patrons to donate at least $1 for the tap water they usually enjoy for free, and all funds raised would support UNICEF's work.
Last year, the International Advertising Association asked volunteers from the advertising, marketing and communications industries to donate time to create the Hopenhagen brand to help push for a positive outcome to the COP15 summit on climate change.
How do you feel about this approach? Is there a real chance that a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict can be found by drawing on the "wisdom of crowds", or is this just another gimmick? Send us your views.
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