PSA blind - White cane - The Web Blackout case study (2013)

As the cane appears on various websites. attempting to find its way around in the dark, the copy reads:

For you, it’s easy to escape the darkness. For some people, it is impossible. Donate to support the purchase of guide dogs for blind people.

This made me think about what a mess it must be to navigate websites as a blind person these days, and I had a flashback to the 90s when someone emailed to thank adland for being great to navigate for blind people with the simplistic web readers of the day. This person even suggested that Adland add closed caption text to the commercials to accommodate those hard of hearing or deaf too. I should have said "wanna help me make it?" because I thought it was a great idea, I just had no idea how to do it. (Fun fact there is one person making this site this gal, and not a team of developers, a wee bit of trivia for you on a Friday.) Back to this ad raising money for the blind though - the agency McCann Beograd / MRM Beograd, Belgrade, Serbia explains:

Our task was to help the NGO for blind and visually impaired people “White Cane” and their cause: the purchase of guide dogs. As our budget was very limited, we decided to go with a special digital campaign.

The idea was to create a synchronized internet blackout on many major web portals in Serbia, so that the visitors of these portals could literally feel “blind” for one minute.

By utilizing completely black takeover banners, the usual content of the portals was transformed into a confusing world of sounds and speech. Using a white cane instead of the typical cursor, the visitors could experience various contents of the web sites, while deprived of the visual component.

Finally, the banners were linked to web-site of the client and the page that was explaining the cause of the campaign.

Advertised brand: White Cane NGO
Advert title: Web Blackout

Advertising Agency: McCann Beograd / MRM Beograd, Belgrade, Serbia
Agency website: http:// www.mccann.rs
Creative Director: Vladimir Cosic, Jana Savic Rastovac, Goran Ocokoljic
Art Director: Slobodan Markovic
Copywriter: Slobodan Markovic, Milena Kvapil
Illustrator: Marko Jovanovic
Additional credits: Milos Stankovic, Aleksandar Jakovljevic , Branka Batricevic