MINISTRE DE LA DEFENSE | OPERATION CHRISTMAS | 2011
If Christmas Can Come to the Jungle, You Can Come Home Too / MINISTRE DE LA DEFENSE "OPERATION CHRISTMAS"
In December 2010, deep in the Colombian jungle, a giant tree turned into a Christmas tree. When guerrilla soldiers walked by, motion sensors lit up 2,000 lights, and a message appeared on a banner next to it: "If Christmas can come to the jungle, you can come home. Demobilize. At Christmas, everything is possible." This is one of the most urgent campaigns ever staged by an ad agency.
The problem
Colombia had been locked in civil war with FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) since 1964, and as of 2010 roughly 6,000 guerrilla soldiers were still hiding out in the jungle. The government had launched a "Humanitarian Return Program" back in 2002, promising education, job support, and psychological care to anyone who disarmed. But the guerrilla leaders had drilled into their soldiers that surrendering meant death. The usual radio and TV appeals had achieved some results, but they had hit their limit. So the Ministry of Defense teamed up with the ad agency MullenLowe SSP3 to search for a new approach.
The insight
The agency team interviewed over 200 former guerrilla soldiers and landed on a crucial insight: demobilizations spiked every December, around Christmas. Spending Christmas away from family was the moment when soldiers' emotions ran highest. Another key finding was that the guerrilla soldiers often felt like victims themselves, abducted into this life, and believed society would never accept them back. What they needed wasn't pressure—it was a warm message saying "it's okay to come home." Ad executive Jose Miguel Sokoloff, who said "my country has never known a single day of peace," staked his career on this campaign.
The idea
Nine giant trees, each about 25 meters tall, were chosen along jungle routes frequently used by guerrilla fighters. Special forces rappelled down from Black Hawk helicopters at night, wearing camouflage and face paint, to decorate the trees. They wrapped 2,000 custom-made Christmas lights around the trunks and branches, wired to motion sensors. When someone walked past, the tree would automatically light up, illuminating a nearby banner with the message: "If Christmas can come to the jungle, you can come home. Demobilize. At Christmas, everything is possible." Crucially, the Colombian military promised not to carry out any attacks in the surrounding area for the duration of the campaign. This wasn't a tactic—it was a genuine invitation.
What happened
During the campaign, 331 guerrilla soldiers demobilized, a 30% increase over the same month the previous year. Building on this success, the following year brought "Rivers of Light" (floating glowing orbs with messages down rivers), followed by "Operation Bethlehem" and "Mother's Voice." Operation Christmas won Gold at Cannes Lions, and in 2012 the series as a whole won the Titanium Lion, the IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix, and the D&AD Black Pencil (the only one awarded that year). It was also featured in the "Designing Peace" exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt museum, proving that advertising could contribute to peacebuilding. That said, later academic research has pointed out that no statistical causal link between the campaign and the demobilization rate could be confirmed.
Afterthought
I want to believe that advertising can save lives. Everyone involved in this work—the agency creatives, the Ministry of Defense staff, and the soldiers who decorated trees in the jungle—probably had an experience they'll never forget. The line "if Christmas can come to the jungle" is really just another way of saying hope, and the sheer force of turning that into 2,000 points of light is remarkable. Whatever you make of the number 331, if even one person saw those lights and made it home to their family, that alone made it worth doing. Not just as advertising, but as human work.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2011
