The Trillion Dollar Campaign

The Trillion Dollar Campaign made extensive use of Zimbabwean banknotes, repurposing them as printing paper for handouts, billboards, and poster advertisements.

In 1999, Wilf Mbanga founded an independent Zimbabwean newspaper titled The Daily News, with the goal of providing neutral coverage of events occurring in the country.

[4] The Zimbabwean approached Johannesburg-based advertising agency TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris for ideas on how to make the export of the paper to Zimbabwe economically viable.

The concept for the campaign was born from a meeting between the two companies, when representatives from the newspaper showed examples of the currency used to purchase The Zimbabwean in Zimbabwe itself.

[8] The resulting media coverage would be leveraged to increase sales of the paper outside of Zimbabwe, primarily to the large communities of Zimbabwean expatriates living in the United Kingdom and southern Africa.

Banknotes of denominations between Z$1,000,000 and Z$100,000,000,000, each bearing one of four English-language advertising slogans, the website address for The Zimbabwean, its logo, and its tagline "A voice for the voiceless", were handed out to motorists stopped at busy intersections in Johannesburg.

[16] The extensive media coverage of the campaign translated into an impressive jump in both public awareness of the Zimbabwean and its message, and in sales figures.