Avaaz developed a broad campaign relating to the Olympics in Beijing and unfurled it in advance of the opening ceremonies, continuing all the way through to the closing ceremonies. A large piece of the overall campaign that we helped with was the "Love China Love X" theme, which was pushed online, in newspapers, and in unique formats like pedicabs, scooters, and pediwalkers. The three prongs of the campaign were:
The "Love China" theme was based off of the viral instant messaging phenomenon in which patriotic Chinese would "place a red love heart followed by 'China' to their MSN ID. The "Love China" campaign calls for Chinese to be patriotic and love their country." [source] The Avaaz campaign opened dialogue in a way that indicated that it was not "anti-China" and which suggested that patriotism should involve genuine dialogue among friends.
Here's how they describe the ads:
These ads served as part of our Olympics handshake campaign which was launched ahead of the Beijing Olympics as a moment to bring global citizens together in the spirit of Olympic solidarity to call for progress on Tibet, Darfur and Burma. Prior to the games, the Chinese government still hasn't opened meaningful dialogue on Tibet or made progress on Burma and Darfur -- and global activists' messages were being lost in a firestorm of accusations about being anti-Chinese.
The handshake attempted to take the Olympic moment back with a powerful, unambiguous message of peace, friendship and dialogue. It began with the Dalai Lama, passing through the streets of London, and then it went online where hundreds of thousands of people joined in. Finally, the message was spread further around the world through a massive Olympic media campaign before the closing ceremonies. The ads appeared on billboards and in newspapers from San Francisco to London, Athens to Singapore. "