Fair and Open Society

Agency: dentsu impact | Market: India
Client: My Choices Foundation

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children,” said Nelson Mandela. But in India, despite the Right to Education Act and antichild-labour laws, child labourers haven’t vanished from society. Rather, they remain hidden, robbed of their childhood and their future.

During the festival of Diwali, millions celebrate the victory of good over evil. Since Children’s Day and Diwali fell on the same day in 2020, we thought it the ideal time to address this.

We worked with My Choices Foundation to highlight this ongoing and often hidden scandal of child labour, with a discussion starting film campaign.

Dentsu Impact launched a film that chronicles the stories of child labourers, who have to do physical, often dangerous, jobs in factories, construction sites, homes, restaurants, eateries and shops, to support their families.

The film showed the stories of these child labourers, who often go by the slang name “Chotu” in every industry that they serve in. The film raises awareness of Chotus and urges every citizen to report cases of child labour, by calling 1800 419 8588 or visiting www.mychoicesfoundation.org.

The film was released on social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn and

Twitter. The campaign has achieved powerful results, reaching 3.1 million people and generating 1.05 million video views, giving the issue the attention it deserves.

Agencies: dentsumcgarrybowen Italy, The Big Now | Market: Italy
Client: Amnesty International

Hate crimes motivated by racial or religious differences have been on the rise for years in Italy, as in the rest of the world. Amnesty International is dedicated to fighting hate crime but needs fresh ways to bring its message to a desensitised society. We created a powerful short film for Amnesty International, to highlight the systematisation of racial violence by digital media.

We wanted to provide pro bono assistance to Amnesty International in Italy on this vital issue. The initial creative insight was simple: how long will it be until racial violence is systematised by the technology of social media?

On 21 March 2020, for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, we launched B 52, a fictional short film. In the seven-minute cautionary tale, youths commit racist, xenophobic, hate crimes as part of a high-tech game. The film’s ambiguous ending implies that anyone in this over-connected, desensitised world, even the predators, might become prey.

“It clearly tells that hatred may turn back on those who spread it,” said Amnesty International’s Riccardo Noury. “It reminds us how easily the line between hate speech and hate crime can be crossed.”

B∙52 was promoted on Amnesty International’s Italian website and social feeds and screened on various digital platforms and TV channels in Italy. It has driven social media discussion of racial violence issues among a new audience.

Agency: dentsu Webchutney | Market: India
Client: The Small Big Idea Company

In Bollywood, domestic violence on screen is still often trivialised. Our campaign for the new Indian movie Thappad aimed to challenge audiences about this sensitive issue.

An estimated three out of five women in India go through domestic violence. Yet Bollywood movies depict scenes of domestic violence that the audience watches without batting an eyelid. We wanted to change that – with our campaign for Thappad, which brings the issue of domestic violence to the fore.

Many Bollywood movies feature pre-film warnings or disclaimers about on-screen smoking, alcohol and animal mistreatment – but not anything warning viewers about on-screen domestic abuse. Our “Thappad Disclaimer” campaign urged viewers to sign a petition to change this – and called upon the audience to declare that domestic abuse is not acceptable.

The objective of the campaign was to sensitise society about domestic abuse, whether it’s emotional or physical – via a campaign leveraging Bollywood influencers. We created a video with the movie’s lead actress, Taapsee Pannu, that appeared on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This asked people to sign a petition on Change.org – demanding change in the Bollywood landscape.

The activity generated 276,896 views of the campaign video, while 155,203 signatures were collected for the petition, even before the movie trailer’s release – which then gained 1.2 million views in two days.

Campaign creative director, Aalap Desai, believes that such campaigns are effective not simply by numbers, but by starting wider conversations. “It’s not about changing things overnight but beginning a process of change.”

Agency: dentsu Jayme Syfu
Market: Philippines

Mutual support is important to build female solidarity and empowerment in the workplace. Our Philippines agency, dentsu Jayme Syfu, runs its annual #Sistergood programme with one main purpose – to inspire and support women into leadership roles.

For 2020, the campaign celebrated ‘the GIFts of #Sistergood’, identifying how women could support and celebrate each other. All women in the agency created animated GIFs that they could use to share encouragement, acknowledgement of success and thanks with other women. Using Facebook, Instagram and Viber, the GIFts featured empowering messages and connected women instantly over chat.

As dentsu Jayme Syfu’s Chairmom, Merlee Jayme, explains, “Tools like Viber and Messenger have been crucial to our everyday communications in the office, from discussing work to agency announcements. Now, seeing these GIFs subliminally brings focus to women’s empowerment in every post.”

More than that, we were able to show people online what support for and between women looks like. Our #Sistergood GIFts were viewed 56.4 million times on GIPHY.

Agency: dentsumcgarrybowen Thailand
Market: Thailand | Client: Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation (WMP)

Progressive Movement Foundation (WMP) Domestic abuse is often a hidden problem, particularly when witnesses don’t want to get involved. We helped WMP highlight this issue.

From the statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO), one third of women worldwide are abused and harassed by their families. In Thailand, on average, five children and women are abused per day. Most witnesses of this abuse choose to ignore it, rather than help.

We came up with the idea of “The Daily Fight”. In a real boxing ring, we set up a scene showing a man and a woman fighting. The unexpected scene shocked the audience

When the truth behind the stunt was revealed, the audience were informed that fights like this happen in real life at home.

We launched the video on International Women’s Day, to raise awareness and get the public to act when they see domestic violence. It attracted 164,600 views on the WMP Facebook page, generating wider social discussion of the issue.

Agency: dentsu impact | Market: India
Client: My Choices Foundation

The Indian National Commission for Women reported a sharp increase in cases of domestic violence, rape and attempted rape from March 2020 onwards. While the lockdown has been a necessary step to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it also meant that women who are victims of sexual domestic assaults, were trapped inside the house with their abusers. Many have become mothers – with no choice and no way out, facing a future which has been thrust upon them.

To get the world talking about issues facing women during lockdown, dentsu impact in India conceptualised and executed a digital video that put the spotlight on one of the biggest, yet least understood, causalities of the pandemic.

My Choices Foundation aims to give women and girls the choice to live free from violence, abuse and exploitation. Our brief was to highlight this sharp increase worldwide due to the lockdown. As the world celebrated Mother’s Day, its eyes needed to be opened to the plight of millions of women who never had the choice of not becoming mothers.

We conceptualised and executed a digital video to highlight the problem. The video shows women staring at the camera, unable to speak a word. But despite the silence, what we see is anger, angst and suffocation. We hear the claustrophobic pain these women go through every day. The voiceover is their inner voice, pleading for us to help them and prevent them from becoming mothers by force.

As Elca Grobler of My Choices Foundation said, “The video leaves one infuriated and with a feeling of disgust at what vulnerable women have to endure. Although it is extremely difficult to fully know the pain that these women go through, it sends across an immensely strong message – let us not be silent.”

Ethnic minorities worldwide have faced particular challenges during the pandemic. Through volunteering and creative campaigns, we helped highlight the work of Aboriginal communities during a challenging time. NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history,

culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the celebration was postponed to November. Indigenous communities around Australia also faced a severe reduction in visitors to their art and community centres.

NAIDOC Week was a chance for brands to reach out and make a real difference.Broadway Shopping Centre in Sydney asked us to create something special to mark the event. In addition, Pinterest tasked us to create a campaign to acknowledge the importance of NAIDOC Week.

We worked with indigenous artists on a bespoke artwork installation for the Broadway mall, hosting a pop-up gallery from Boomalli Aboriginal Arts, weaving workshops and running the First Nation Fashion Pop-Up Store. Many of our people volunteered their time to run activities during the event.

For Pinterest, we launched the Northern Indigenous Renaissance, a bespoke virtual exhibition with artworks and images from art centres across northern Australia.

Thousands of visitors visited the Broadway mall in NAIDOC Week to see the artwork and pop-up store. Over ten days, our volunteers helped to generate over AUD60,000 in sales. We helped secure 16 pieces of media coverage about the event, including broadcast TV, and over 6.8 million online impressions.

Our Pinterest activity during November 2020 generated 7 million impressions, 42,000 clicks and 1.2 million video views.