2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

We fought fists with a finger and turned the “Tap” feature of Instagram Stories into a tool against domestic abuse. And we showed how a light tap can escalate through the story of @lifeof_farah on Instagram. Through a woman’s profile (@lifeof_farah), we followed men as they were drawn to visit her profile on Instagram (@lifeof_farah) and uncover her Instagram story by tapping on the Play button. Then, as they tapped through her Instagram story, they experienced the damage the abuse was causing her, one tap at a time.

Creative Execution

Using the tap mechanism on Instagram Stories, we shot and developed 4 frames of a young woman; each in an escalated stage of physical abuse. With every tap on screen, her face became more bruised; showing the lasting damage each tap can cause if the violence wasn’t nipped in the bud. To amplify the campaign, we tagged influential men, and got them to support our message by sharing the story with their followers. Additionally, people across the UAE are also being invited to raise awareness about this message by @dfwac, by sharing the images from the story and tagging @lifeof_farah and @dfwac.  Popular female influencers and activists endorsed and shared the story too.

With $0 spent on promoting the story, and $0 spent on influencers, the idea left a serious mark on people. Within a few hours of it going live, leading Arab female influencers and human rights activists such as the host of “Project Runway Middle East”, Jessica Kahawaty (@jessicakahawaty), endorsed the message and the story. Word of mouth within the first 24 hours, triggered conversations. “A brilliant depiction of how things can escalate if not nipped in the bud” (Creative Middle East)   420 cases of abuse have been reported and 420 women have gotten protection from the foundation. (Source: Dubai Foundation for Women & Children)

As an extension to its Orange campaign against domestic violence that encouraged women to speak up against violence, the Dubai Foundation for Women & Children, wanted an idea to set social media abuzz. And in order to help create awareness among men about this majorly misinterpreted and misused ‘light tap’ and to show how what they think is a light tap can escalate into something far more damaging, we tapped into Instagram (a popular platform) and used Instagram stories’ tap feature as a tool against domestic abuse.