How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns
-
0:01 - 0:04So, I thought a lot about
the first word I'd say today, -
0:04 - 0:06and I decided to say "Colombia."
-
0:06 - 0:10And the reason, I don't know
how many of you have visited Colombia, -
0:10 - 0:13but Colombia is just north
of the border with Brazil. -
0:13 - 0:14It's a beautiful country
-
0:14 - 0:18with extraordinary people,
like me and others -- (Laughter) -- -
0:18 - 0:23and it's populated
with incredible fauna, flora. -
0:23 - 0:27It's got water; it's got everything
to be the perfect place. -
0:27 - 0:29But we have a few problems.
-
0:29 - 0:31You may have heard of some of them.
-
0:31 - 0:34We have the oldest
standing guerrilla in the world. -
0:34 - 0:36It's been around for over 50 years,
-
0:36 - 0:39which means that in my lifetime,
-
0:39 - 0:44I have never lived one day
of peace in my country. -
0:44 - 0:48This guerrilla -- and the main group
is the FARC guerrillas, -
0:48 - 0:50Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia --
-
0:50 - 0:58they have financed their war
by kidnapping, by extortion, -
0:58 - 1:01by getting into the drug trade,
by illegal mining. -
1:01 - 1:05There has been terrorism.
There have been random bombs. -
1:05 - 1:10So it's not good.
It's not really good. -
1:10 - 1:14And if you look at the human cost
of this war over 50 years, -
1:14 - 1:19we have had more than
5.7 million displaced population. -
1:19 - 1:22It's one of the biggest displaced
populations in the world, -
1:22 - 1:26and this conflict has cost
over 220,000 lives. -
1:26 - 1:29So it's a little bit like
the Bolívar wars again. -
1:29 - 1:33It's a lot of people who
have died unnecessarily. -
1:33 - 1:36We are now in the middle of peace talks,
-
1:36 - 1:39and we've been trying to help
resolve this problem peacefully, -
1:39 - 1:41and as part of that,
-
1:41 - 1:44we decided to try something
completely lateral and different: -
1:44 - 1:46Christmas lights.
-
1:46 - 1:49So Christmas lights, and you're saying,
-
1:49 - 1:52what the hell is this guy
going to talk about? -
1:52 - 1:57I am going to talk about gigantic trees
-
1:57 - 2:02that we put in nine strategic
pathways in the jungle -
2:02 - 2:04covered with Christmas lights.
-
2:04 - 2:11These trees helped us
demobilize 331 guerrillas, -
2:11 - 2:15roughly five percent
of the guerrilla force at the time. -
2:15 - 2:18These trees were lit up at night,
-
2:18 - 2:20and they had a sign beside them
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2:20 - 2:25that said, "If Christmas can come
to the jungle, you can come home. -
2:25 - 2:26Demobilize.
-
2:26 - 2:29At Christmas, everything is possible."
-
2:29 - 2:32So how do we know these trees worked?
-
2:32 - 2:34Well, we got 331, which is okay,
-
2:34 - 2:39but we also know that
not a lot of guerrillas saw them, -
2:39 - 2:42but we know that a lot of
guerrillas heard about them, -
2:42 - 2:43and we know this
-
2:43 - 2:46because we are constantly talking
to demobilized guerrillas. -
2:46 - 2:49So let me take you back
four years before the trees. -
2:49 - 2:53Four years before the trees,
we were approached by the government -
2:53 - 2:57to help them come up with
a communications strategy -
2:57 - 3:00to get as many guerrillas
as we could out of the jungle. -
3:00 - 3:03The government had a military strategy,
-
3:03 - 3:04it had a legal strategy,
-
3:04 - 3:07it had a political strategy, but it said,
-
3:07 - 3:09"We don't really have
a communications strategy, -
3:09 - 3:12and it probably would be
a good thing to have," -
3:12 - 3:16so we decided to
immediately jump into this, -
3:16 - 3:22because it is an opportunity
to affect the outcome of the conflict -
3:22 - 3:26with the things that we do,
with the tools that we have. -
3:26 - 3:28But we didn't know very much about it.
-
3:28 - 3:32We didn't understand in Colombia,
if you live in the cities, -
3:32 - 3:35you're very far away from where
the war is actually happening, -
3:35 - 3:37so you don't really understand it,
-
3:37 - 3:39and we asked the government
to give us access -
3:39 - 3:42to as many demobilized
guerrillas as possible. -
3:42 - 3:44And we talked to about 60 of them
-
3:44 - 3:49before we felt we fully
understood the problem. -
3:49 - 3:52We talked about -- they told us why
they had joined the guerrillas, -
3:52 - 3:55why the left the guerrillas,
what their dreams were, -
3:55 - 3:57what their frustrations were,
-
3:57 - 4:01and from those conversations
came the underlying insight -
4:01 - 4:04that has guided this whole campaign,
-
4:04 - 4:09which is that guerrillas are as much
prisoners of their organizations -
4:09 - 4:12as the people they hold hostage.
-
4:12 - 4:14And at the beginning, we were
so touched by these stories, -
4:14 - 4:17we were so amazed by these stories,
-
4:17 - 4:20that we thought that maybe
the best way to talk to the guerrillas -
4:20 - 4:23was to have them talk to themselves,
-
4:23 - 4:27so we recorded about a hundred
different stories during the first year, -
4:27 - 4:30and we put them on
the radio and television -
4:30 - 4:34so that the guerrillas in the jungle
could hear stories, their stories, -
4:34 - 4:36or stories similar to theirs,
-
4:36 - 4:39and when they heard them,
they decided to go out. -
4:39 - 4:42I want to tell you one of these stories.
-
4:42 - 4:44This person you see here
is Giovanni Andres. -
4:44 - 4:47Giovanni Andres is 25
when we took that picture. -
4:47 - 4:52He had been seven years in the guerrilla,
and he had demobilized very recently. -
4:52 - 4:55His story is the following:
-
4:55 - 4:58He was recruited when he was 17,
-
4:58 - 5:03and sometime later,
in his squadron, if you will, -
5:03 - 5:08this beautiful girl was recruited,
and they fell in love. -
5:08 - 5:12Their conversations were about
what their family was going to be like, -
5:12 - 5:14what their kids' names would be,
-
5:14 - 5:17how their life would be
when they left the guerrilla. -
5:17 - 5:18But it turns out
-
5:18 - 5:22that love is very strictly forbidden
in the lower ranks of the guerrilla, -
5:22 - 5:25so their romance was discovered
and they were separated. -
5:25 - 5:29He was sent very far away,
and she was left behind. -
5:29 - 5:31She was very familiar with the territory,
-
5:31 - 5:34so one night, when she was on guard,
-
5:34 - 5:36she just left,
-
5:36 - 5:39and she went to the army, she demobilized,
-
5:39 - 5:43and she was one of the persons
that we had the fortune to talk to, -
5:43 - 5:45and we were really touched by this story,
-
5:45 - 5:48so we made a radio spot,
-
5:48 - 5:51and it turns out, by chance,
-
5:51 - 5:54that far away, many,
many kilometers north, -
5:54 - 5:57he heard her on the radio,
-
5:57 - 6:02and when he heard her on the radio,
he said, "What am I doing here? -
6:02 - 6:07She had the balls to get out.
I need to do the same thing." -
6:07 - 6:09And he did.
-
6:09 - 6:12He walked for two days and two nights,
-
6:12 - 6:14and he risked his life and he got out,
-
6:14 - 6:17and the only thing
he wanted was to see her. -
6:17 - 6:20The only thing that was
in his mind was to see her. -
6:20 - 6:23The story was, they did meet.
-
6:23 - 6:26I know you're wondering if they did meet.
-
6:26 - 6:27They did meet.
-
6:27 - 6:31She had been recruited when she was 15,
and she left when she was 17, -
6:31 - 6:33so there were a lot
of other complications, -
6:33 - 6:35but they did eventually meet.
-
6:35 - 6:40I don't know if they're together now,
but I can find out. (Laughter) -
6:40 - 6:48But what I can tell you is that
our radio strategy was working. -
6:48 - 6:52The problem is that it was working
in the lower ranks of the guerrilla. -
6:52 - 6:54It was not working with the commanders,
-
6:54 - 6:56the people that are
more difficult to replace, -
6:56 - 7:02because you can easily recruit
but you can't get the older commanders. -
7:02 - 7:06So we thought, well,
we'll use the same strategy. -
7:06 - 7:08We'll have commanders
talking to commanders. -
7:08 - 7:12And we even went as far
as asking ex-commanders of the guerrilla -
7:12 - 7:15to fly on helicopters with microphones
-
7:15 - 7:18telling the people that
used to fight with them, -
7:18 - 7:20"There is a better life out there,"
-
7:20 - 7:23"I'm doing good,"
"This is not worth it," etc. -
7:23 - 7:28But, as you can all imagine,
it was very easy to counteract, -
7:28 - 7:31because what was
the guerrilla going to say? -
7:31 - 7:34"Yeah, right, if he doesn't do that,
he's going to get killed." -
7:34 - 7:38So it was easy, so we were
suddenly left with nothing, -
7:38 - 7:40because the guerrilla
were spreading the word -
7:40 - 7:43that all of those things are done
-
7:43 - 7:48because if they don't do it,
they're in danger. -
7:48 - 7:52And somebody, some
brilliant person in our team, -
7:52 - 7:55came back and said,
"You know what I noticed? -
7:55 - 7:59I noticed that around Christmastime,
-
7:59 - 8:01there have been peaks of demobilization
-
8:01 - 8:04since this war has started."
-
8:04 - 8:07And that was incredible,
-
8:07 - 8:12because that led us to think
that we needed to talk to the human being -
8:12 - 8:14and not to the soldier.
-
8:14 - 8:16We needed to step away from talking
-
8:16 - 8:21from government to army,
from army to army, -
8:21 - 8:25and we needed to talk
about the universal values, -
8:25 - 8:27and we needed to talk about humanity.
-
8:27 - 8:31And that was when
the Christmas tree happened. -
8:31 - 8:33This picture that I have here,
-
8:33 - 8:36you see this is the planning
of the Christmas trees, -
8:36 - 8:40and that man you see there
with the three stars, -
8:40 - 8:42he's Captain Juan Manuel Valdez.
-
8:42 - 8:47Captain Valdez was the first
high-ranking official -
8:47 - 8:51to give us the helicopters
and the support we needed -
8:51 - 8:53to put these Christmas trees up,
-
8:53 - 8:56and he said in that meeting
something that I will never forget. -
8:56 - 9:03He said, "I want to do this
because being generous makes me stronger, -
9:03 - 9:06makes my men feel stronger."
-
9:06 - 9:08And I get very emotional
when I remember him -
9:08 - 9:13because he was killed later in combat
and we really miss him, -
9:13 - 9:19but I wanted you all to see him,
because he was really, really important. -
9:19 - 9:23He gave us all the support
to put up the first Christmas trees. -
9:23 - 9:26What happened later is that
the guerrillas who came out -
9:26 - 9:30during the Christmas tree
operation and all of that -
9:30 - 9:33said, "That's really good,
Christmas trees are really cool, -
9:33 - 9:36but you know what?
We really don't walk anymore. -
9:36 - 9:37We use rivers."
-
9:37 - 9:41So rivers are the highways of the jungle,
-
9:41 - 9:43and this is something we learned,
-
9:43 - 9:48and most of the recruiting was being done
in and around the river villages. -
9:48 - 9:51So we went to these river villages,
-
9:51 - 9:52and we asked the people,
-
9:52 - 9:56and probably some of them were
direct acquaintances of the guerrillas. -
9:56 - 10:00We asked them, "Can you send
guerrillas a message?" -
10:00 - 10:03We collected over 6,000 messages.
-
10:03 - 10:06Some of them were notes saying, get out.
-
10:06 - 10:09Some of them were toys.
Some of them were candy. -
10:09 - 10:13Even people took off their jewelry,
their little crosses and religious things, -
10:13 - 10:18and put them in these floating balls
that we sent down the rivers -
10:18 - 10:21so that they could be picked up at night.
-
10:21 - 10:23And we sent thousands
of these down the rivers, -
10:23 - 10:25and then picked them up
later if they weren't. -
10:25 - 10:27But lots of them were picked up.
-
10:27 - 10:32This generated, on average,
a demobilization every six hours, -
10:32 - 10:36so this was incredible and it was about:
Come home at Christmas. -
10:37 - 10:41Then came the peace process,
-
10:41 - 10:43and when the peace process started,
-
10:43 - 10:46the whole mindset
of the guerrilla changed. -
10:46 - 10:48And it changed because
-
10:48 - 10:51it makes you think, "Well,
if there's a peace process, -
10:51 - 10:53this is probably going to be over.
-
10:53 - 10:55At some point I'm going to get out."
-
10:55 - 10:57And their fears completely changed,
-
10:57 - 11:00and their fears were not about,
"Am I going to get killed?" -
11:00 - 11:04Their fears were, "Am I
going to be rejected? -
11:04 - 11:07When I get out of this,
am I going to be rejected?" -
11:07 - 11:10So the past Christmas,
what we did was we asked -- -
11:10 - 11:14we found 27 mothers of guerrillas,
-
11:14 - 11:18and we asked them to give us
pictures of their children, -
11:18 - 11:22when they only could recognize themselves,
so as not to put their lives in danger, -
11:22 - 11:26and we asked them to give
the most motherly message you can get, -
11:26 - 11:31which is, "Before you were a guerrilla,
you were my child, -
11:31 - 11:33so come home, I'm waiting for you."
-
11:33 - 11:36You can see the pictures here.
I'll show you a couple. -
11:36 - 11:38(Applause)
-
11:38 - 11:40Thank you.
-
11:44 - 11:49And these pictures were placed
in many different places, -
11:49 - 11:53and a lot of them came back,
-
11:53 - 11:56and it was really, really beautiful.
-
11:56 - 11:59And then we decided to work with society.
-
11:59 - 12:02So we did mothers around Christmastime.
-
12:02 - 12:05Now let's talk about
the rest of the people. -
12:05 - 12:10And you may be aware of this or not,
but there was a World Cup this year, -
12:10 - 12:18and Colombia played really well,
and it was a unifying moment for Colombia. -
12:18 - 12:21And what we did was tell the guerrillas,
-
12:21 - 12:26"Come, get out of the jungle.
We're saving a place for you." -
12:26 - 12:31So this was television, this was
all different types of media saying, -
12:31 - 12:33"We are saving a place for you."
-
12:33 - 12:36The soldier here in the commercial says,
-
12:36 - 12:39"I'm saving a place for you
right here in this helicopter -
12:39 - 12:43so that you can get out of this jungle
and go enjoy the World Cup." -
12:43 - 12:46Ex-football players, radio announcers,
-
12:46 - 12:48everybody was saving
a place for the guerrilla. -
12:48 - 12:53So since we started this work
a little over eight years ago, -
12:53 - 12:5617,000 guerrillas have demobilized.
-
12:56 - 13:00I do not -- (Applause)
-
13:00 - 13:03Thank you.
-
13:03 - 13:12I don't want to say in any way
that it only has to do with what we do, -
13:12 - 13:18but what I do know is that our work
and the work that we do -
13:18 - 13:23may have helped a lot of them
start thinking about demobilization, -
13:23 - 13:27and it may have helped a lot of them
take the final decision. -
13:27 - 13:33If that is true, advertising is still
one of the most powerful tools of change -
13:33 - 13:36that we have available.
-
13:36 - 13:39And I speak not only my behalf,
-
13:39 - 13:41but on behalf of all
the colleagues I see here -
13:41 - 13:43who work in advertising,
-
13:43 - 13:47and of all the team that has
worked with me to do this, -
13:47 - 13:50that if you want to change the world,
-
13:50 - 13:52or if you want to achieve
peace, please call us. -
13:52 - 13:54We'd love to help.
-
13:54 - 13:55Thank you.
-
13:55 - 14:01(Applause)
- Title:
- How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns
- Speaker:
- Jose Miguel Sokoloff
- Description:
-
Colombia is a country of exceptional beauty and promise, and it’s also a country where the F.A.R.C. guerrilla movement has incited violence for 50 years. “In my lifetime, I have never lived one day of peace in my country,” says Jose Miguel Sokoloff. This ad executive and his team saw an opportunity to sway guerrillas' hearts and minds with Christmas trees and personalized messages strategically placed throughout the jungle. A look at the creative messages that have led thousands of guerrillas to abandon the war, and the key insights behind these surprising tactics.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:22
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns |