Hong Kong anti-extradition protest ad nominated for Japanese advertising award

(Photo Credit: Freedom HONG KONG)Since the early days of the ongoing anti-extradition bill protests in Hong Kong, netizens have been launching crowdfunding efforts to publish ads in publications worldwide. Now, one of these works has been nominated for the Nikkei Advertising Awards in Japan.The ad in question was placed in the Japanese financial newspaper, The Nikkei (日本經濟新聞) on 19 August. The organisation Freedom HONG KONG said in a post on its official Facebook page that it had been notified of the nomination by The Nikkei yesterday.The post read, “Our ad published on their newspaper on 19 August will be nominated for the Nikkei Advertising Awards! We are excited to share this great news to all our important stakeholders like yourselves!”The text reads “Stand with Hong Kong for Freedom” with an egg hit by a bullet.The statement continued: “We would like to express our sincere gratitude for the generous support from The Nikkei and our Japanese friends. We hope the people of Japan will still be able to hear our voice during the award ceremony in a few months!”Freedom HONG KONG has been producing their ad content in collaboration with users of online forum Lihkg. The intent is for the ads to draw awareness of and support for Hong Kong’s ongoing protests against a bill that would allow suspected criminal extraditions to China. Calling for international support of the protest’s goals and condemnation of the government’s actions, work from the movement has been published across 18 newspapers in 13 countries so far. The countries that have published related ad content include the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and will remain until 30 August.Several of the ads can be seen here.This is not the first time independent netizens have launched a worldwide ad campaign. Back in June, users created ads in major international newspapers to call attention to issues surrounding the opening of the 2019 G20 Osaka Summit.