New Social Campaign Aims To Limit Accessibility Of Bladed Weapons In Georgia

We are a creative agency "watergunz" and we have recently launched a social campaign with a manifest to change the law and make bladed weapons less accessible to underage individuals in the country of Georgia.

The problem is that there are about 50 shops in Georgia's capital where bladed weapons are accessible to everyone. As a result, within the last three years, more than 540 bladed weapons were recovered from Tbilisi schools and about 80 people died from bladed weapons, out of which 10 were teenagers.

More info: manifest.ge | Facebook

Research showed that the society and the government of Georgia were not aware or hadn’t realized the problem of free accessibility of bladed weapons in the streets. The aim of the campaign is to create awareness of the problem and put the government and public on spot to make changes.

For this purpose, we carried out an experiment by asking teenagers to buy bladed weapons in Tbilisi. They were able to purchase about 100 items including knives, electroshock weapons and other objects within a couple of hours. 

These objects were used to create a weapon orchestra, consisting of 11 musical instruments playing Georgian folk song, each instrument having its own specially written piece to perform. 

This song is also a very important part of the concept, as it is known to practically every individual in Georgia. The song is taught at kindergartens and sung at home by almost everyone during their childhood. Since it’s a folk song, at some point in the history of Georgia, the text was modified into a brutalist version, which goes as follows: “If somebody says a bad thing about you, you should put a knife in their hearts”. The song is so common that most people don’t even realize the message it sends.

The concept of the campaign comes together in an idea that we, as a society, teach kids how to behave, if they get angry and we, as a society, hand them weapons by not realizing how accessible it is in the streets. And the government, in its own, is not doing anything to prevent it.

We plan to continue to push the initiative with various OOH activities, such as the recent "Museum of Indifference" on Tbilisi's main avenue, where anyone had the chance to interact with the instruments and sign the petition on sight.

It must also be noted that this is the first time an advertising agency has started a completely independent, in-house social campaign in Georgia, with no sponsor, external funding, whatsoever.

Credits:
Agency - watergunz
Production Company - Enkeny Films
Creative Director - Bacho Meburishvili
Senior Art Director - Matassi Sulakauri
Sound/Music Composer - Tornike Karchkhadze
Electronic Specialist - Mamuka Apakidze
Creative Team - Niko Ksnelashvili, Toy Rua Toidze, Zura Jijiashvili, Vano Kuparadze
Strategists - Mariam Mikelashvili, Elene Gugushvili
Graphic Designer - Baia Lomsadze
CG Artist - Akaki Kapanadze
Project Managers - Tatia Jikia, Nini Dvalishvili
Digital Media Strategist - Sophie Popiashvili

Director - Dato Borchkhadze
DoP - Omar Gelashvili
Producer - Sopho Orjonikidze
Decoration - Jimsher Berdzenishvili, Giorgi Kavelashvili, Gia Aprasidze, Dato Omanashvili, Erekle Gordeladze, Kino Fabrika
Light & Camera Equipment - JagaGrip
Focus Puller - Dito Dekanosidze
Dolly - Goga Chanturia
Gaffer - Vazha Aprasidze
Lighting - Misha Saganelidze, Leri Kapanadze, Robert Arakelian
Production Sound Mixer - Bacho Gvetadze
Sound Assistant - Nika Kokhreidze
Production Designer - Dato Chkoidze
Production Designer Assistant - Zaza Gogorishvili
SFX - Soso Gvasalia, Dato Gvasalia

Special thanks to: Georgian Film, JagaGrip, Kino Fabrika, Giorgi Shvelidze, Paata Godziashvili, Nino Tsitlauri, Sandro Nikolaishvili, Sopho Vasadze