Switzerland - IOM is partnering with Ogilvy & Mather, the international advertising, marketing and public relations agency, to run ‘Picture Perfect Europe,” a perception change campaign on the current migration and refugee emergency in Europe.

The campaign, which is aimed mostly at young people, believes that it is time to look at the bigger picture of the situation of migrants and refugees in Europe, through the use of impactful visuals that show a very beautiful crop of a larger image inside the Instagram interface, that enhances reality through one of their characteristic filters.

The viewers’ attention is immediately captivated by the section of the page where a beautiful beach or a sunset is shown. Only after reading the full page it becomes clear that the beautiful picture hides a tough reality of refugees and migrants from around the globe.

The campaign, which is being run via a series of print, social and direct marketing ads, will redirect the audience to IOM’s I am a Migrant campaign, where users can sign up, volunteer or donate, as well as read migrants’ stories from all over the world.

“This campaign comes at an opportune time as Europe is facing one of its biggest refugee and migrant challenges since the end of the Second World War, with countries struggling to cope with unprecedented numbers of migrants and refugees who have crossed into Europe in the past year,” said IOM Director of Media and Communications Leonard Doyle.

“Despite heavy media attention dedicated to the topic, there is still a portion of the European population, especially the youth, that does not fully realize the magnitude of this crisis and what it entails. We hope that this short campaign will help them to be better informed and hopefully get involved in finding solutions,” he added.

The campaign will be rolled out via banners, Instagram posts, direct mailing and print ads.

For more information on the campaign, click here. For further information please contact Luca Lamorte at IOM HQ, Tel: +41 22717-9168, Email: llamorte@iom.int