Commercial Exploitation of Children Awareness Campaign
Tompkins County Youth Services (in Upstate NY) approached us to develop an awareness campaign around a challenging topic: commercial sexual exploitation of children. We knew our campaign needed to stand out from the usual imagery of battered children and sad faces. Because youth and teenage victims of commercial sexual exploitation often fear speaking up against their own mistreatment, our first goal was to build awareness that sexual exploitation happens here.
Our second goal was to point out that the signs of sexual exploitation are hard to spot. We settled on a key message “Can You Hear the Silence? Listen for the Signs”, to drive home the subtlety of the signs of mistreatment, but also the need for community awareness. Bold, colorful, minimalist illustrations of youth at risk proved to be the best approach for our wide age demographic. Our illustrations were simple and clean, and set this campaign apart from typical imagery. The broad range of media — from bus ads, billboards, mall signage, and traditional print materials, gave this campaign lots of exposure, and created productive conversations in our community.
