Hasta La Creative!

The Blind Book, a project by Brazilian agency DM9Sul, seeks to give sighted people in Brazil some insight into how it feels—as blind people do every day—to be denied access to literary works because they are not published in a format they can read.

Working with the Dorina Nowill Foundation and Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk, DM9Sul got 10 leading Brazilian authors to produce a collection of new, original stories—on the theme, "Everything we cannot see"—that was then published exclusively in Braille.

This was meant to highlight the fact that only 5 percent of books in Brazil have Braille editions, even though half a million sight-impaired people live in that country. "Besides raising awareness, the project seeks to engage society in helping change this reality," says Márcio Callage, CEO of DM9Sul.

Sighted people will be able to experience the stories, but only by listening to them. There's a Portuguese audiobook version, and this website will offer films of the stories being read aloud by blind people.

This marks the second time in recent weeks that books have been used in novel ways to drive social-issues initiatives. The Drinkable Book, from DDB and Water Is Life, educates at-risk populations about hygiene and sanitation while its pages serve as filters to purify contaminated water.

Hopefully, such fusions of media and message, which transcend traditional PSAs and add extra dimension to their causes, will open some eyes and improve people's lives.

CREDITS
Client: Fundação Dorina Nowill Para Cegos (Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind)
Agency: DM9Sul
Chief Executive Officer: Márcio Callage
Vice President, Creation: Marco Bezerra
Associate Creation Directors: Everton Behenck, Rodrigo Pereira
Head of Art: João Pedro Vargas
Creation: André Blanco, Rogério Chaves, Gustavo Bilésimo
Customer Service Director: Cláudia Schneider
Customer Service: Cecilia Martines
Media Director: Silvio Calissi
Media: Renata Schenkel, Milena Bitencourt
Content Production: Anna Martha Silveira, Thais Sardá
Public Relations: Mariella Taniguchi, Bruna Lauermann
Audiovisual Production: Elisa Celia, Marcelo Stifelman
Digital Production: Daniel Vettorazi, Vinícius Mutterle
Website: Matheus Kramer
Graphic Producers: Débora Roth, Mariene Braga, Taisa Rosa
Illustration: João Azeitona, Mariana Valente
3-D: Ricardo Rocha
Final Art: Anelise Gomes, Karoline Nunes
Revision: Cecilia Santoli
Graphic Material: Cartonaria e Stilgraf
RTVC: Thiago Vanigli, Bernardo Silva
Film Director: Marcelo Stifelman
Film Production: Tape Motion
Audio Production: Coletivo 433
Voiceover: Loop Reclame
Client Approval: Daniela Coutelle, Bruno Dória, Priscila Saraiva