12 ideas that could prevent World War 3. That's where you come in.

I remember reading the appeal from a Ukraine advertising agency to creative people the world over for the first time. Reading the words from this Ukrainian advertising creative person asking for ideas to help stop World War 3 really hit home for me, as I bet it did with many in our business. It was billed as “The most important brief ever” and man were they right.

Here I am running an idea-generating platform, Ideasicle X! How could I not contribute to this calling? I recruited a team and we got to work. Now for the first time ever I want to share the entire idea-generating process with you, including the ideas, of course.

Remember, Ideasicle X is an idea company, not an execution or production company, so agencies if any of our ideas appeal to you and you’d like to handle the execution just contact us via the corresponding form boxes.

Here’s how it went down.

The Team

We always work in teams of four here at Ideasicle X, so I sent out an email invitation to all of the Ideasicle Experts to see if I could field a team. I didn't really care which ones were on the team, they’re all great. To my delight, four almost immediately signed up.

Below you’ll see the final team’s “baseball cards” exactly as our customers see them on the Ideasicle X platform. Click any to read their bios. But, as you’ll see with the ideas below, this was an awesome, talented, enthusiastic team.

Ernie Schenck (portfolio page):

Don McKinney (LinkedIn page)

Claudia Caplan (LinkedIn page)

Anonymous Contributor

The team locked in, I was ready to prepare the online briefing materials.

The Brief

All Ideasicle X projects allow you to post a pdf of your creative brief and a video, where you can explain the brief from top to bottom. I used the briefing materials from the Ukrainian agency with some mild direction in the video.

This is exactly what the team saw when they started the job, all inspired by the original post from the Ukraine.

Now that they were briefed and hopefully inspired, it was time to see what they could do. Remember, organizers of idea projects (me in this case) can not only see the ideas as they are posted, but can participate, too. You’ll see I posted lots of comments and some of my own ideas (I can’t help myself).

The ideas

An incredible range of ideas happened over the course of about a week. There were about 30 original ideas posted, each with their own builds and riffs from the team. One idea would inspire another idea, which would inspire another. It was a beautiful thing.

Our technology won’t allow for the public viewing of Idea Streams due to confidentiality/security reasons. However, I captured the initial concept for each of the ideas below, grabbed the key visual, and then created PDFs of the full idea thread for each (see “See Full Idea” buttons under each idea).

And, again, Agencies! If there are ideas here you want to execute on behalf of the Ukraine, let us know by filling out the form next to the idea you’re interested in and we’ll get right back to you.

Now, on with the ideas, in no particular order. Note: these are verbatim from the idea sessions so there is some bad language in places (mostly me) and some misspellings here and there. It’s the nature of the beast.

Title: “Z”

Idea started by Ernie Schenck:

I have no idea why the Russians have appropriated the letter Z, but it's everywhere. On their military vehicles. On their clothing. Its become a unifying symbol of their resolve, if you can call it that. What I don't get is that Z stands for Zelensky. Weird. I mean, youd think they would have figured that out. What if we went with a reversal tactic? Let's get every Ukrainian to steal the letter Z from the Russians. Z for Zelensky. Z for everything Ukraine is fighting for…

An agency who wishes to remain anonymous is producing this idea.

Title: “50 children have been killed”

Idea started by Anonymous Contributor

This to me this is the most tragic of all the tragedies in Ukraine. The innocent who should just be playing and full of joy and no worry. I was thinking that  they must miss their toys so much. Did you see the clip of the family who fled so quickly, all the toys were still there. Can we start a toy drive? Can we do a massive air drop of toys? Should we design a Teddy Bear and name him after Zelensky? Have them parachute in to all the refugee camps? Teddy Bear Paratroopers?

Does your agency want to execute this idea?

Title: “Imaginary Chicken Kyiv”

Idea started by Claudia Caplan:

Every restaurant around the world, regardless of cuisine, adds "Imaginary Chicken Kyiv" to their menu as a fundraiser.  Perhaps with the funds going to Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen, currently feeding refugees on the Ukraine border…

Gargoyle Creative, out of Ireland, is producing this idea.

Title: “Ukraine AirBNB”

Idea started by Don McKinney:

A partnership with AirBnB to show the civilian devastation…

Does your agency want to execute this idea?

Title: #MOTHERSAGAINSTTHEWAR

Idea started by Ernie Schenck:

So not long ago, I did an interactive documentary for a client in Istanbul that wanted to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle for Gallipoli.  I came up with this narrative device where the story was told from the persectives of two mothers, one from each side of the war.  The idea was to show that at the end of the day, all these women wanted was for their boys to come back alive.  Nothing else mattered.  These were their children.  Fuck the politicians and the generals.  They wanted their kids to come home.  

Does your agency want to execute this idea?

Title: “Concert In Kiev”

Idea started by Will Burns:

This is nuts, I admit. But hear me out. What if some famous artist like Paul McCartney or someone like that were to invite his artist friends to hold a gigantic concert right in the middle of Independence Square in Kiev? The best artists in the world, from all over the world (including Russia) are there. The stage is set and very few would attend, of course, but it would be televised live and give Putin pause for taking over Kiev - does he really want to kill Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, James Taylor, Post Malone, Kanye West, Chance The Rapper, Lil' Wayne. Maybe it's a marathon concert that promises to never end until the war ends.  

Does your agency want to execute this idea?

Title: “I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke”

Idea started by Anonymous Contributor

What if edited the horrific images of refugees fleeing Ukraine surrounded by the devestation, bombing, sadness, death - to this song? 

SUPER: The world would like you to stop selling Coke in Russia.

SUPER: #boycottcocacola

Note: this idea came up prior to Coca Cola pulling its business out of Russia. Good thing, too, because we got someone to edit this idea and were about to post it. Click here to request a viewing of the edited piece. It was such a great idea, we wanted you to see it anyway. No execution required.

Title: “Sponsored By…”

Idea started by Don McKinney:

Simple idea to call out companies still doing business in Russia.

Does your agency want to execute this idea?

Title: “You can’t camouflage the truth”

Does your agency want to execute this idea?

Idea started by Ernie Schenck:

There are so many reports of Russian soldiers, many of them very young, who were threatened, lied to, tricked.  They were told they were taking part in exercises or that they were liberating the Ukranian people from a Nazi regime.  Its very hard to get the truth into Russia with almost every independent news source shut down, even social media is getting squeezed.  Look at this video of a young soldier and his emotional reaction when some Ukrainians shown him kindness…

Title: “Budmo!”

Idea started by Claudia Caplan:

The Ukrainian toast means "Let Us Be."  Start Budmo! nights at local bars in support of Ukraine.  Perhaps drinking Ukrainian Nemiroff Honey and Pepper Vodka.  Also Budmo! tee-shirts.  And guerilla Budmo! pretty much anywhere.

Does your agency want to execute this idea?

Title: “If you give a dictator a cookie…”

Idea started by Don McKinney:

(no other description, see image)

Title: “Build a new Ukraine”

Idea started by Ernie Schenck:

Let's collaborate with Legos to build a new life for Ukraine and its people.  People from all over the world would be invited to create and build things from blue and yellow Legos, take photos and post them on IG with your donation to a childrens relief fund.  

The agency who started all this from the Ukraine - ISD Group - has elected to produce this idea!

Closing thoughts

I must admit I’ve never worked on a project as important as this one. I hope, with your help, some of this work can see the light of day and help Ukraine when they need creativity most. A huge thanks to Ernie, Don, Claudia, and our Anonymous Contributor for volunteering their time for this project, all of whom you can recruit for your own idea projects on the Ideasicle X platform.

BUDMO!

Postscript

Immediately after I published this blog post, I sent a link to the Prevent WW3 organization. I didn’t expect a response, but did want to make sure they saw the ideas. Within about an hour I did get a response and it about made me cry. Here it is:

Hugs right back to you.

Will Burns is the Founder & CEO of Ideasicle X. You can reach him at willb@ideasiclex.com.