How do you get people to care about landmine detection when tragedy is everywhere?
Client: APOPO
Market: Cambodia
Launch: 4th of April 2026
Problem
Cambodia still lives with an invisible war.
Landmines left behind by past conflicts still kill civilians, and slow down development.
APOPO is an NGO that has developed one of the fastest, safest, and most cost-effective ways to detect landmines — by training rats to sniff them without triggering explosions.
Yet despite saving thousands of lives, APOPO remains underfunded.
Insight
Tragedy has become familiar; it no longer captures attention.
What makes people care is the incredible story of an impossible hero.
Solution
We made a statue of a … rat.
Magawa was an APOPO-trained rat who safely detected more than 100 landmines during his working life. After retiring, he later died peacefully — an unlikely hero who saved countless lives.
We honoured him with 2.2-metre-high statue placed in the most touristic area of Siem Reap.
A monument to an animal people usually hate.
The pedestal contains fragments of real landmines, grounding the story in the reality Magawa helped dismantle.
The statue also acts as a physical gateway to APOPO’s visitor centre, inviting tourists to learn about landmines, meet the rats, and directly support the NGO.
Results
Launched during a week dominated by global conflict, Magawa was the story the world needed most
1 billion+ earned media reach
Covered by The Economist, BBC, The Washington Post, Fox News, Al Jazeera, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, Der Spiegel, The Times of India, Tencent News, Vice Media
… and hundreds more.
45 countries. 28 languages.
From French to Uzbek television.
6M+ organic video views
Across social platforms.
Thousands of positive reactions
$0 media spend
