Lancia and the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates for human rights

PARIS, France - Lancia is proud to be the main sponsor of the 9th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev and Walter Veltroni.

The main theme of the Summit isecember 15, 2008: “Human Rights: for a world without violence”.

The Summit is being held this year in Paris instead of Rome, where previous editions were held, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reunites many Nobel Peace Laureates and various prominent figures dedicated to fighting for peace and to defend human rights on an international level.

Nobel Laureates attending include Frederik Willem De Klerk, Lech Walesa, John Hume, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, and Betty Williams, together with guests of honour Bono, Ingrid Bétancourt, Kerry Kennedy, and Sein Win.

Lancia felt it was important to stand alongside the Summit with both its presence and resources because the Nobel laureates back a very special person, one of their very own, who received the Nobel prize 17 years ago.

Now a prisoner in her own homeland, Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

This edition of the Summit is dedicated to her, the utmost example of the breach of those very rights that are being celebrated.

Together with the collaboration of the Nobel Laureates Lancia has produced a brief film that gives a voice to the Summit by helping these great individuals to communicate their message to every corner of the globe.

The 30 seconds film was premiered today at the Summit in presence of the mayor of Paris Delanoe, the Nobel laureates, Bono, Penelope Cruz and Carla Bruni, and was subsequently presented to the international press at Terrazza Martini, a historic partner of Lancia, which offered its prestigious Paris premises for the occasion as a sign of support for the initiative.

”The film we are presenting this evening,” said Olivier Francois, Chief Executive Officer of Lancia Automobiles, “was produced in honour of all those who put their lives at stake in the hopes of making the world a better place. I am referring in particular to those men and women who are still prisoners, like Aung San Suu Kyi.

The mutual objectives of a carmaker and of those who fight for peace and human rights can be attained if both are willing to use their own resources and image to send a courageous and righteous message. We believe strongly in this. We at Lancia also want to make a difference”.

Various international television networks and operators from the world of communications shared in Lancia’s project and will broadcast the film.

The statement of Mikhail Gorbachev

“I wish to express to all Nobel Laureates and the organisers my desire that the 9th Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, as has happened in the past, renews its call for the liberation of our colleague, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has suffered 13 years of house arrest.

Her freedom would open a road to a dialogue which is the only way for Burma to achieve national reconciliation - so desired by its people and the outside World.

It is for this reason that I have supported the idea of launching, together with the Nobel Laureates present at this Paris Summit, an international campaign to attract global public opinion on this issue of our colleague’s liberation.

I sincerely hope that, notwithstanding my absence, you will be able to take forward this initiative which I have always supported.

With my best wishes,

Mikhail Gorbachev.”

The Film
An empty seat, a tangible absence, a deafening silence. The quintessence of this key visual of considerable significance gives rise to an "out-of-the-box” communications campaign that not only speaks of peace and respect for human rights, but is dedicated to those who have lost their own while fighting for the freedom of all.

This brief film opens on a series of Lancia Deltas, the official Summit car, all black, arriving at the Hotel de Ville in Paris, site of the meeting. The Nobel Prize Laureates participating in the Summit get out one by one. The door to the last Delta, which, unlike the others is white, opens, but no one gets out: the seat is empty. The person who should have been there is not.

There is a moving musical soundtrack as a background for the speaker's touching words:

There are people who have been fighting forever.

Men and women who lived their life so that we could live ours.

These are the bravest warriors ever existed.

We would like to hug them all for a day.

But there is one hug we miss.

This movie is dedicated toAung San Suu Kyi,Nobel Peace prize winner, aprisoner in her own Country.

This idea was born spontaneously out of the collaboration between Lancia management and Summit organisers while the presence and support of Lancia was still being defined. It was later further enhanced by the support and appreciation of the international figures participating in the Summit.

The creative project, truly a case of “Instant Production”, was conceived, developed, and finalised in every detail and in a variety of media by the Armando Testa Group, a long-time creator of Lancia advertising campaigns and developed in under two days by Little Bull productions.

Due to the uniqueness of the event such limited production times were made possible through a meticulous simulation of the frames, carried out during the days before with tables and drawings, as well as special organisation by the director, who was particularly flexible, and the use of journalistic reporting techniques.

Also to give the operation support of a viral nature, Lancia – which has always been attentive to integration among the various communication media – has yet again decided to exploit the potential of the web to promote the campaign for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi also on line through the creation of the site http://www.sendyourpeacemessage.org/. produced by Testa Web Edv.

A planisphere made up of lots of little spaces to be occupied, a digital world to “shout” out loud the value of freedom and peace and spread it through the Internet. The method is simple and intuitive: every user who accesses the site has the possibility to send a greeting to who they want occupying a space in the world with their own picture and message of peace, thereby contributing to upholding the cause together with Lancia. The message will be seen in the planisphere, among thousands of others. Visitors to the site will also have the possibility to discover the movie dedicated to the summit.