Responses by Eugen Finkei, art director, Y&R Prague
Background: After returning from World War II, Czech Republic soldiers weren’t celebrated like in other countries. Instead, they were sent to prisons and labor camps by the Communist regime. The purpose of our campaign was to remind people that this shocking historical event of remains preserved in Czech educational nonprofit Post Bellum’s National History Archive so it will not be forgotten and repeated in the future.
Reasoning: We framed these complex stories into one snapshot to emphasize the cruelest feature of the situation, the way the communists treated our heroes after coming back from war.
Challenges: Executing the print ads and paraphrasing the real stories authentically to look like pictures from that period.
Anything new: Reconstructing an authentic moment of history requires a huge amount of research, which involves collecting the right props, wardrobe and actors, followed by precise retouching process. All of this really can’t be done in a day, but when a great team gets together, everything is possible.
Visual influences: History archive materials, epic historical movies focusing on the past and typography posters and newspapers from that period.
Specific demands: It was a big challenge to find at least three different areas that expressed the arrival of the Czech soldiers from World War II and prepare those areas to look one hundred percent authentic.
Browse Projects
