Microsoft: We Pirated a Celebrity

Myanmar has one of the highest rates of non-genuine software use in ASEAN. Microsoft wanted a six-month campaign, online and offline, to raise awareness of piracy in urban Myanmar and to support the purchase of official Windows and Office products.

Piracy was so normalised that a conventional awareness message would be ignored. Microsoft needed an integrated campaign that would spark conversation and make people feel, rather than merely hear, why genuine matters.

Ruder Finn Era, then ERA Communications, built the campaign on a single idea: be real. To make it land, the team pirated a celebrity. A performance by a famous singer was advertised at popular consumer electronics outlets, and when the audience arrived they were met by a lookalike pretending to be the star.

As the disappointment set in, the real celebrity came out and delivered the anti-piracy message to an audience that had just experienced what a fake feels like. The stunt was captured on video and supported by content, events and PR stories encouraging people to be true to themselves and accept only the genuine article. Anti-piracy and cyber security messaging has continued through Microsoft's media relations retainer since.