In January 2019, Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet established geo-located online shops that, thanks to a legal loophole, gave homeless citizens protection against being moved on by police. Under Danish law it is illegal for homeless people to sleep on the streets in groups. This law forces homeless people to sleep individually, and so face a higher risk of being attacked. But there is an exemption: outdoor sleeping in groups is allowed for those who are waiting in line overnight for a sale. Leveraging the fact that many homeless citizens have a smartphone, Ekstra Bladet established online stores that only worked in specific physical locations in Copenhagen. Homeless people could gather together at a store location, get issued a ticket to their phone to represent their place in the ‘queue’ for the store, and then sleep legally. Ekstra Bladet say that more than 8,000 queue tickets were generated during the campaign.

Wow, this newspaper has some moxy 💪 Of course, no one thinks that this campaign is a solution to homelessness in Denmark. The aim here was to bring attention to a serious issue: the campaign was discussed across social and mainstream media, and by Danish politicians. But what does all this mean for you?

LEGISLATIVE BRANDS. We’re all accustomed to brands taking a stand on Big Issues of the day. But what’s the next evolution? We’re seeing rising numbers of brands go further, and enact rule changes or campaign for new laws that make the world a better place. Think, for example, about Microsoft insisting all US contractors offer parental leave to their staff. So can your organization make the world a better place by campaigning for a legal change, pushing for a rule change in your industry, or even exploiting a legal loophole in the name of good, as Ekstra Bladet did?

Don’t fake it. This campaign didn’t come out of the blue. Before running the campaign, Ekstra Bladet wrote extensively about the challenges faced by Danish homeless people, and even sent one of their journalists to live on the streets for a week. The lesson here: if you’re about to push for progressive change, make sure it comes from an authentic place. If your organization’s values and internal culture don’t truly align with the change you’re calling for, you’ll face a legitimate fire storm of criticism.