Europhie

During my job at the hype agency AGI at the end of the first dot.com bubble in 2001, i helped making the project Europhie. I worked as a designer/programmer and was responsible for frontend and backend programming, data visualization and "community features". The German yearbook of advertising, Jahrbuch der Werbung, awarded it as the best internet campaign in Germany.

However, all that is left are some blurry screenshots:

The people of Germany, about to be deprived of their beloved Deutschmark, were given the chance to tell their opinion on the currency change to Euro. Users had to complete some interactive psychology tests, the results were used to generate the position of a dot on a matrix that would show the general mood concerning the new currency. Everything with a lot of feeling, as it is typical for the propaganda industry.

The project was technically and graphically sophisticated: mood bubbles, controversally discussed statements would grow in size, a cool time slider could be used to track the development of the data, there were even AJAX-like functions for user based ratings ... compatible with Netscape 4!!

But on the content level the project was questinable. When it was launched just before the introduction of the Euro currency in Germany, it was of course already decided on the highest political level that the Euro would replace the Deutschmark. There was no turning back. The seemlingly importance of the users opinions that the project was radiating can be called deceptive. Still, thousands of users wrote and discussed their opinions and moods with inspiration, for and against the Euro, rated their texts and had a good time ... Because in 2001 it was just an awesome blowoff that users could write something on a corporate website.