Win Google India · 2013
Two friends separated by Partition, reunited by search
What happened
'Reunion' followed an Indian grandfather and his childhood friend in Lahore, separated by the 1947 Partition, brought back together by their grandchildren using Google Search. It ran across both India and Pakistan.
Why it worked
It touched the most painful shared event in both countries by staying at the level of two individuals, and used the product as the mechanism rather than the message. Both markets embraced it.
The rule
A historical trauma shared by two hostile markets can be handled — from the human scale, with no political framing, and with the product doing work rather than talking.
Takeaway
The safest way into a sensitive history is one specific person's story, told without a lesson attached.