2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

47% of married Egyptian women suffer from domestic violence and 99% of Egyptian women suffer from sexual harassment. And because females prefer to stay silent out of shame, they often don’t report it. Same goes for witnesses trying to mind their own business. Hence, violence against women became a reality society is used to instead of an abnormality they’re trying to fix. A campaign launched by UN Women to face society with its own doing. It normalized assault just like society does through the use of fairytales to capture the cycle of violence feeding on people’s silence. The aim was to provoke a reaction and push people to end the cycle of silence by speaking up.

The Campaign

Challenge: People in Egypt stay silent about violence against women. Objective: was to provoke a reaction and push people to end the cycle of silence by speaking up. Strategy: The campaign normalized assault just like society does. Through the use of fairytales, we captured the cycle of violence, feeding on people’s silence to confront society with its own doing. Execution: The campaign showcased different types of violence in form of fairytales in denial of reality. The campaign launched with billboards followed by TV and radio confronting society with fairytales that go violent pushing them to speak up. Outcome: Women started marching the streets of Cairo urging more women to speak up. And calls reporting violence increased by 25%

Creative Execution

The communication strategy was based on unifying the message in all media to make sure we leave the biggest impact. We started off by outdoors, to get people to talk about the campaign and share it digitally, followed by TVC, and Radio, capitalizing on the existing digital buzz. Outdoor was utilized to illustrate what women go through behind closed doors. By day billboards showed a regular woman. However, when it gets backlit at night, bruises start to appear and the meaning of the story changes. And it keeps repeating just like the cycle of violence, feeding on people’s silence. TV addressed different types of violence in form of fairytales in denial of reality. The use of projections and face mapping served as a mirror to society showing the direct consequence of silence on women. Radio further confronted society with those shocking fairytales when they least expected it.

The campaign took social media platforms by storm. It had 3M reach and 5M impressions. The campaign was covered by 36 online portals and it gained about $400K worth earned media. What started as a billboard campaign ended with women marching the streets of Cairo urging more women to speak up. And calls reporting violence increased by 25%