The archive · Games & Play · Marketing decision · 2023
Zikaron BaSalon and McCann bring Holocaust survivor stories into Call of Duty WWII
McCann carried survivor stories into the gaming world Gen Z lives in — via Call of Duty WWII, influencers and gameplay.
McCann Tel-Aviv · Zikaron BaSalon
What it had to solve
With antisemitism at global highs and Israel the keeper of Holocaust memory, broadcast-only remembrance missed the generation that had escaped into gaming. Zikaron BaSalon wanted survivor stories to reach Gen Z inside the world they never left.
How it works
With antisemitism at global all-time highs, Israel's role as keeper of Holocaust memory had never mattered more — yet on the day the whole country shut down to broadcast survivor stories, the generation that must carry that memory was elsewhere.
Gen Z had escaped into a non-stop gaming world where the Holocaust was an afterthought. McCann Tel Aviv's answer was not to pull them out but to enter: it brought survivor stories into Call of Duty WWII, one of the games they actually play.
Using gaming influencers and gameplay, the campaign staged remembrance inside the game itself — connecting testimony to the Holocaust-era world of the game so that playing, watching and remembering happened in the same place.
Fighting to Remember translated Holocaust remembrance into the language of the next generation, and the work is held in the D&AD awards archive.
Why it lands
- Broadcast-only remembrance cannot reach the generation that has left conventional media for gaming.
- Call of Duty WWII recreates Holocaust-era settings, so the game already contains the history the campaign needed to show.
- Gaming influencers gave survivor stories native carriers Gen Z already follows and trusts.
- Putting remembrance inside play lowers the barrier: the audience does not have to opt in to history.
What it did
The work made Holocaust remembrance happen inside Gen Z's own world rather than in a broadcast they skip, at a moment when antisemitism was at global highs; it is preserved in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
Remembrance only survives if the next generation receives it: when the audience has left the medium, follow them into the game rather than repeating the broadcast.
Since then
Fighting to Remember turned a day of broadcast remembrance into something that reached the generation living in gaming, using Call of Duty WWII and its influencers as the carrier. The campaign's premise — meet the audience where they are, even inside a video game — is preserved in the D&AD awards archive.
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