War Child: Balloon Tank

3,500 Tweets “Get the War Out of Children” in Colourful 7,000 Balloons InstallationDuring a promotion week held by War Child Holland and Dutch radio station Radio 538, a life-size war tank, made out of 7,000 balloons, invaded the city square of Den Bosch in the Netherlands. With the help of the Twitter community the tank (9m long by 3m high) was unleashed into the air and transformed back to balloons. For this the public was asked to send 3,500 tweets with the message: Get the war out of children #Warchild.
Balloon Tank for War Child is an idea by Happiness Brussels and executed in collaboration with German artist Hans Hemmert.

The symbolic installation was designed to create online awareness for War Child and its mission whilst bringing the slogan “Get the war out of children” to life in a beautiful way. See video at: http://vimeo.com/39430396

Awareness campaigns such as Balloon Tank continue to be necessary, because thousands of children still grow up in war zones. They are confronted with violence, loss and destruction. War Child works to empower children in war-affected areas and helps them build back their life through creative and participatory programmes. This stunt symbolises this in a positive way.

Within a couple of hours the message was (re)tweeted more than 3,500 times. The tank stunt was immediately picked up by local and national radio and press. Pictures of the stunt were shared and viewed more than 300,000 times in just two days.