Fighting words

Free Tibet
Brand language

Finding a voice for the most oppressed people on earth.

Close-up of a child's face with text overlay stating 'WE SEE YOU, CHINA' in bold yellow letters.

What we did

Positioning
Messaging
Tone of voice

Once a cause célèbre, China’s atrocities in Tibet have somewhat dropped off the news agenda. Yet, according to Human Rights Watch, Tibet was the least free nation on earth in 2021, and things have only become worse.

Free Tibet is non-profit, non-governmental organisation fighting to give Tibetans a voice. They approached us to help them recapture some of the dynamism and outrage that made them such a popular cause in the 1990s.

A group of people sitting in a row, with one person in the foreground wearing a red shirt. The image has overlaid text that says 'TICKET IS THE LAST FREE COUNTRY ON EARTH!' and a yellow bar at the bottom with repeated text 'FREE TICKET' in blue and red.
Bold red background with repeated yellow and white text saying "FREE TIBET" at the top and bottom, and large white text in the center stating "YOU WON'T HEAR ABOUT TIBET ON THE NEWS."

“I love it. I just love it. In fact, I’m slightly annoyed I didn’t come up with it.”

Will Hoyles, head of communications

Two protest posters on a weathered pink wall. The blue poster says, "Tibet is the least free country in the world." The yellow poster says, "You won't hear about Tibet on the news." Both posters feature a logo at the bottom with the text "Free Tibet."
A colorful graphic with bold blue text stating 'Be Confrontational, but Constructive' and a logo of a triangle with red, blue, and yellow elements. The background features a yellow border with a red strip at the bottom repeating the word 'Tibet' in white.

So our positioning and messaging explored ways to turn these challenges into opportunities, focusing on ideas like the power of bearing witness, the importance of memory and turning a lack of proof points into a potent proof point of its own. 

Then our tone of voice guidelines provided the tools to help turn anger into action, to be constructively confrontational, and to find (and inspire) hope in even the bleakest situations.

A yellow background with the word 'FREE TIBET' in large blue letters and a Tibetan flag symbol to the right. A red banner at the bottom repeats the phrase 'FREE TIBET' in yellow and white text.

Anger has a part to play. But on its own, it’s not enough. There has to be a purpose, there has to be a plan. And most of all, there has to be hope. Because if a cause is hopeless, it’s pointless.

But hope is hard to come by in the story of Tibet. And, in the world’s most sophisticated police state, very little of that story even makes it across the border. 

Colorful graphic with a large yellow number 3, blue text box containing the message 'We see you, China. And the world will know what you're doing,' and a disclaimer about China and Tibet. Repetitive yellow and red banner at the bottom reads 'Free Tibet'.
A colorful poster with a blue background and a red rectangle in the center, featuring the bold yellow text "TIBET IS THE LEAST FREE COUNTRY ON EARTH" and smaller white text criticizing apartheid surveillance and supporting Tibetan independence. The bottom border has repeating yellow and red text stating "FREE TIBET."

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