IR magazine developed an AR app to bring transparency to political advertisements
It’s the era of fake news, and we need to keep politicians accountable more than ever. Here’s how IR harnessed the power of AR to strengthen that mission.
The IR magazine created a non-partial educational app to scan political campaign ads on the street and gain information on the party and candidates. It brought to light any improprieties on the candidates’ side, scandals, voting history, and more.
The app became the most downloaded app in the local app store, bringing awareness to broader society through creative multimedia channels.
IR magazine is award-winning for its investigative journalism and is known for its dedication to truth and transparency. In the 2017 national election in Latvia, IR collaborated with Delna, the organization for political transparency, to prepare relevant information about different parties and candidates, which could influence the voters’ decision making.
The information was made available both online, as well as by scanning any political advertisement with the Overly app to gain an overlay of relevant information.
The innovative approach was able to draw attention to the campaign and the availability of information, as well as made accessing that information compelling through the new format – augmented reality.
More importantly, the app addresses the troubling trend of low youth voter activity. The app makes political information available and attainable to the younger voters by offering it in a medium that is comfortable, interactive, and easy for them to understand.
