“I am a Copenhagener” was a campaign targeting Danish youth in order to generate awareness of freedom of speech and dialogue with other ethnic and religious communities in the Danish capital.

In the wake of the Mohammed cartoon crisis, Copenhagen City Council wanted to signal that the council strives towards tolerance, freedom of speech and dialogue with other ethnic and religious communities. In order to generate awareness of these issues, it was decided to arrange a day with different kinds of activities targeted at children attending the municipal primary and lower secondary school. Activities focused on different aspects of the issue.

The working title of the campaign was; Day of Tolerance. Since the target group is selective and exposed to all campaigns craving their attention on a daily basis, one of the challenges in this case was to capture the attention and commitment of these children.

In our research we studied how to target the group precisely and in their terms – without losing the essence of the campaigns message.
Studies from Rotterdam indicated that people of different ethnic origin or national background often see themselves as a part of the city rather than part of Holland. We chose to apply this mind set to Copenhagen, where the message was that Copenhagen is a tolerant city of which we are all a part. Hence, the campaign slogan: I am a Copenhagener.

The slogan was written in the commune’s 7 most used languages and the campaign culminated on the 31 of March 2007 with activities and parades attracting an overwhelming attendance.