2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

47% of married Egyptian women suffer from domestic violence. And because females prefer to keep their family affairs secret, they often don’t report it. Same goes for witnesses trying to mind their own business. Hence, domestic violence became a reality society’s used to instead of an abnormality they’re trying to fix. A campaign by UN Women faced society with its own doing. It normalized assault 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 by speaking up.

Results and Effectiveness

The campaign took social media platforms by storm. Within 24h the outdoor went viral reaching 36K people. The campaign was covered by 25 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 women to speak up. And calls reporting violence increased by 25%

Creative Execution

A billboard campaign was launched across the city showing a regular woman by day who’s part of a fairytale. However, what women face behind closed doors changes the story. As the billboard gets backlit at night, bruises start to appear with the campaign name ‘Speak Up’ changing the meaning of the story. Duplex printing was used with the bruises on a separate layer that appear once the billboard lights at night. And it keeps repeating just like the cycle of violence, feeding on people’s silence. The campaign started on billboards but then moved digitally, going viral and becoming talk of town. TV and radio launched after, confronting society with more fairytales that go violent pushing them to speak up.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The target was not just women, who are subject to domestic abuse, but society at large - everyone who witnesses domestic violence and stays silent. The campaign showed how domestic violence can be cancerous to society if ignored. And the only way-out is by speaking up and confronting the problem. So the campaign had to be placed in different governorates across Egypt, to reach Egyptians of different geographics and backgrounds. And it was key that the billboard was placed in high traffic areas to reach as many people as possible.