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Colouring ‘IN’ – when Boris got Trumped

author
Emily Antoniadi
10th Jun 2016
Article

So you might have seen this popping up on your newsfeed, your TV, your newspaper and, well, everywhere (if not, it’s time to re-think the whole ‘living under a rock’ thing).

Painted by the Bristol artists Paintsmiths, this “thing of horrifying beauty” (quoth Alex Lyons), was the outcome of a Kin&Co and We Are Europe campaign to get people voting ‘IN’ on June 23rd.

Like all the best ideas, the ‘Kiss of Death’ was brewed up over coffee. It was a classic ‘If we could do anything, what would we do?’ moment. Capturing Boris Johnson and Donald Trump mid-snog, Berlin-wall stylee, was surely going to convince young voters to stay ‘IN’? No-one wants that ‘special relationship’ to become a reality!

Well, dear reader, convince the greater public it did. The mural engaged countless journalists, gaining coverage in 6 continents and sparking 120 online pieces of content including CNN, AOL, Washington Post, Reuters, Telegraph, Mirror, Guardian and Mashable. It is estimated that 500-600 million people viewed the mural across these outlets. On social, too, the mural went viral, being shared over 500,000 times and with a whopping engagement rate of 7.4%. Perhaps most notably of all (to Harry Potter fans at least) we were re-tweeted by JK Rowling – Dumbledore is SO ‘IN’. Not bad results for an £800 budget and one week timescale.

To date, the ‘We Are Europe’ creative ball is very much still rolling. Check out our Boris vs. beaches and puppy-power videos. With only 12 days left ’til polling day there’s lots more in the pipeline too. Follow We Are Europe to be ‘IN’ on the action …

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