Germany’s ‘White Wings’ & ‘Depant GIESSEN 46ers’ Swap Jerseys For International Week Against Racism

Two German basketball teams, White Wings Hanau and Depant GIESSEN 46ers, exchanged jerseys before a BBL / ProB game tip-off and played in the club colours of their opponents for a serious on-court, anti-racist stunt to mark International Week Against Racism.

The initiative, titled by ‘Jersey Swap For Tolerance’, was created in harness with agency ServicePlan with jersey sponsor PEAK Sport and aimed to send a message against racism.

Both captains gave a short speech before the start of the match in memory of the victims and the special edition kits stated in large letters ‘Colour makes no difference. Not in sports and certainly not when it comes to skin colour’.

The in arena initiative was promoted through PR and a social and digital campaign which culminated in a campaign video.

Racism continues to be a serious problem in Germany and in German sport and the background to this initiative was a tragedy in February 2020 when a racially motivated terrorist killed nine people before killing himself in the city of Hanau near Frankfurt.

Two years later, Hanau’s basketball team made a clear statement for International Week against Racism which sought to make sure no one forgets the tragedy and to stand up to racist hate and embrace diversity and tolerance.

The jersey swap match day was chosen to ensure maximum reach as the match against the Giessen 46ers has special significance in Hanau as it was the home team’s first game after the attacks.

Plus, the fixture coincided with the United Nation’s organised International Week against Racism.

“Unfortunately, racism is still a topic that affects society as a whole. People are insulted, discriminated against, attacked and in the worst cases even killed, solely because racists have taken offence about their origin or skin colour,” explained Serviceplan Creative Managing Director Alexander Nagel. “We wanted to hold up a mirror to society in the most striking way possible and offer a new approach to dealing with the sensitive issue of racism based on skin colour. In memory of the victims of the Hanau attack, both teams unanimously emphasise: Colour doesn’t matter. In sports, club colours may mean everything – skin colour makes no difference at all, on or off the field.”

The campaign was briefed in by Managing Director White Wings Basketball GMBH Sebastian Lübeck and Marketing Head of Giessen 46ers GMBH & Co KG Christopher Dickert by a Serviceplan team which included Global Chief Creative Officer Alexander Schill, Chief Creative Officer Germany Matthias Harbeck, Executive Creative Directors Alexander Nagel and Christoph Everke, with the idea and concept developed by Martin Jüstel, Creative Director Moritz Dornig, Copywriter Nedim Aktas, Junior Art Director Elvira Breit, Junior Motion Designer Philipp Elsner, Graphic Designer Lukas Plapst, Senior Account Manager Julia Leibetseder, Junior Account Manager Julian Hupfeld, Head Of Digital Benjamin Majeron, Head Of Corporate Communications Serviceplan Agencies Birgit Koch, PR & Content Consultant Kathrin Neumayer and International Communications Officer Lee Sharrock.

The group who worked on the project at It’s Us Media included Chief Production Officer & Managing Director Yana Isabelle Maier, Executive Creative Director Max Penk, Production Assistants Gregor Nehring and Mayke Pels, DOP Marius Fischer and Photographer Sebastian Berger, with social media handled by Peak GMBH’s Johannes Petersen.

Comment

We’ve analysed a few jersey exchange sports campaigns in recent years – such as Tide’s NFL ‘Clean Jersey Swap‘ and BMO’s Montreal Impact ‘Jersey Exchange‘, but none of these actually saw rival teams play an official match in one another’s kits.