New Year Crime Scenes

Agency: Leavingstone Creative Chairman: Levan Lepsveridze Chief Creative Officer: Anze Jereb Creative Director: Irina Beriashvili Art Director: Luka Ivanidze Copywriter: Dachi Imedadze Initial Idea: Luka Ivanidze English Copy: Tatia Darsadze Production: Sound editing: AddMusic Voice-over Artist: Tamo Bebia Motion Design: Amiran Toronjadze Producer: Tamta Navrozashvili Special Thanks to George Korganov

Every single year the use of pyrotechnics takes away the lives of countless small birds. Just last year on New Year’s Eve in Rome on the outskirts of a railroad hundreds of birds were found dead due to the noise caused by the pyrotechnics. Another massive illustration of this devastating issue was back in the year 2010 when at the Kansas State New Year’s Eve Celebration more than 5,000 Red-winged Blackbirds died because of the deafening fireworks. Here in Georgia, the sale of firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices is completely unregulated. In Tbilisi, especially on holidays, they are sold to any individual not taking into consideration their age or their ability to use the said devices. It was so important to reach a large number of people so that we could encourage our audience to show restraint and not take part in the use of pyrotechnics of any kind. Together with Animal Rescue Georgia, we want to do our best to prevent further injuries. The goal is to simply ensure the general public takes a safer and more thoughtful approach to fireworks. We created a campaign that carries a direct message that probably some would find a little shocking. Our objective was to showcase the brutal results of pyrotechnic usage. The creative outdoor installation is named “New Year Crime Scenes" and it depicts the death of a bird by the use of a chalk outline similar to the ones seen on the ground at crime scenes. We wanted to show that everyone is a co-conspirator in these tragic events. And to bring this to a greater masses we chose to use those exact markets where pyrotechnics are being sold along with other high foot traffic public locations. We shared environmental infographics on Instagram to educate people on the issue of pyrotechnics. Humans, birds, pets, farm animals, and wildlife are all at risk. Due to the loud noises caused by fireworks birds become disoriented and shocked, often causing them to fly into windows in the urban areas. Stress caused by the explosive devices negatively affects house pets as well, including dogs, who especially are in distress because of their higher-frequency hearing compared to humans. Pyrotechnics also have environmental ramifications - during the explosion various metal particles are released into the air and some are deposited in the ground. Also, the concentration of sulfur and nitrogen dioxide in the air increases, leading to lakes and rivers becoming contaminated, and eventually them getting into our drinking water. Without the proper training pyrotechnics can also be dangerous to the people using them. The Emergency Situations Coordination And Urgent Assistance Center estimated that last year on December 31st and January 1st 81 individuals were injured in the country, 51 of which were hospitalized because of pyrotechnics. We successfully managed to change the minds of quite a few residents. People's engagement dramatically increased not only on the streets but also online. Our outdoor activities prompted residents to share posts on social media. Even news sources got involved, writing articles about our campaign. With a media budget of 0 dollars, we reached up to 400 000 people and got everyone talking. These numbers made our project the most buzz-worthy environmental campaign of the year and noticeably fewer fireworks were heard on New Year's. Every single person who listened and was dissuaded from using pyrotechnics is the positive change that our society and animals need.