CREATIVITY IS RISKY: FREE SPEECH IN A CHARLIE HEBDO WORLD
Objective
Sally O’Dowd felt deep sadness when two Al Qaeda terrorists murdered 11 journalists and seriously wounded 11 others at Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015.
She wanted to draw attention to threats to free speech around the world and create a #freespeech movement, drawing from her journalism background, French fluency and knowledge of Paris to bring an authentic voice to the issue.
As a professional content marketer, she also wanted to create a prototype for issues-oriented, branded content.
Strategy
Sally self-financed, wrote and published Creativity Is Risky: Free Speech in a Charlie Hebdo World, a multimedia and interactive e-zine to support the universal human right to free expression. The 38-page magazine includes feature stories, op-eds, photography, and embedded videos and music.
She enlisted the support of cartoonists, academics, authors and human rights advocates to create her original content. She also hired an e-magazine producer, art director, photographer and copy editor to ensure a high-quality product.
Result
From Salman Rushdie to people on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Creativity Is Risky: Free Speech in a Charlie Hebdo World has generated extensive conversation, shares, and positive reviews from all over the world.
The magazine continues to gain traction what with physical and verbal assaults on the media by Donald Trump and members of his campaign. Sally’s May 2016 encounter with Rushdie provided fresh material with which to renew the conversation.
You can find the interactive e-zine at Issuu.com/sallyodowd