Kubatana’s yellow poster campaign

Kubatana, an online hub of social justice resources, has a knack for rallying people’s spirits with its irreverent sense of humor. In 2014, as Zimbabweans and the economy reeled in the wake of President Robert Mugabe's landslide election, and the prospect of five more years of self-serving, corrupt governance, Kubatana.net decided to run a campaign that would lift spirits and engage citizens using inspiring and challenging quotations on bright yellow posters in public spaces.

Wherever possible, avoid anonymity, because standing up for your cause builds respect and helps you hold your space.

Posters are typically used to sell products, promote political candidates or publicise events. Kubatana saw an opportunity to use them in an unconventional way – to stimulate discussion by posting nonpartisan, thought-provoking and inspiring quotations throughout the suburbs of Zimbabwe's capital city, Harare. For example: ‘“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention”; “Do things that make your heart beat faster”; “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”; and “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”

Kubatana has tens of thousands of subscribers across email, social media, SMS and WhatsApp. These channels were used to raise the profile of the campaign and solicit feedback, which was received via all of our electronic channels and in person. People loved the campaign and remarked on the variety of places in which they'd seen the posters.

To make maximum use of the financial resources invested in the posters, Kubatana encouraged the public to interact with them in a variety of ways:

• Tell us which quote you like best and why

• Win airtime by helping us take the posters down (this ensured that the campaign never became stale)

• Buy posters from us and we'll donate the money to a charity of our choice.

A small contractor was engaged to produce and install the posters and later used to recover those that remained up at the end of the campaign.