There’s nothing tricky about Cookies Agency’s PSA for Fondazione Giulia Cecchettin. Its power is in its relationship to real life. It’s simple, blunt, unambiguous and aimed directly at men.
The film urges society to recognise, and interrupt, the language and everyday behaviours that sustain the culture behind gender-based violence. The story is a group of men at a table boasting about the “insignificant” things they have said or done to their partner. One by one, those boasts escalate.
Then the comments are instantly neutralised when the women return to the table and are greeted with affectionate gestures.
The message is that violence is not a sudden outburst. It grows through words, glances, habits, and behaviours people choose to minimise and justify. It is rooted in everyday life and reinforced by cultural scripts that still get dismissed as “no big deal.”
The film ends with the words, “Violence doesn’t start all at once. It seeps into our culture. If we don’t change, only the victims’ names will.” The closing line is a call to action, especially addressed to men, inviting them to become part of the solution by learning consent and boundaries, and by intervening among peers to stop harmful behaviour before it escalates.
In just one week, the film has generated over 6 million views on Instagram, and has been widely covered across national Italian media. The campaign message also reached the country’s largest mainstream stages. Gino Cecchettin was invited as a guest during the final night of the Festival di Sanremo, Italy’s most prominent music event, and he also appeared on Che Tempo Che Fa, Fabio Fazio’s talk show followed by millions of viewers, further amplifying the film’s call for cultural change and prevention through education.
A radio version of the film was also produced, featuring a voiceover contributed by Francesco Pannofino.
Fondazione Giulia Cecchettin ETS was established in October 2024 to honour the memory of Giulia memory, a victim of femicide, by transforming grief into concrete action against gender-based violence. Gino Cecchettin, president of Fondazione Giulia Cecchettin ETS, stated, “This film invites us to look honestly at our everyday lives. Violence begins in language, in the excuses we make, in the small forms of control we keep calling ‘normal.’ We have a duty to interrupt this mechanism and consciously choose respect, listening, and responsibility. The Foundation was created with this purpose – to build a future in which no woman ever again becomes just a name on a list of victims.”
Francesca Mudanò, CEO and chief creative officer at Cookies Agency, added, “It has been an honour and a privilege to collaborate with Fondazione Giulia Cecchettin on a project that feels so necessary. This film comes from a simple but urgent truth – violence doesn’t begin with an extreme act, it begins with words and behaviours that culture continues to normalise and minimise. Telling that mechanism plainly, without rhetoric and without filters, is an act of responsibility. It’s fully aligned with Cookies’ founding values – using creativity to build awareness, shift perspectives, and contribute to real-world impact.”
Credits
Agency: Cookies Agency
Creative Directors: Francesca Mudanò, Filippo Rieder
Copywriters: Francesca Mudanò, Ella Marciello
Art Directors: Filippo Rieder, Oscar Colapinto
Head of Social: Matteo Villa
Production Company: Grøenlandia
Director: Simone Godano
Executive Producers: Barbara Brown, Leonardo Godano
Line Producer: Cecilia Passa
Assistant Director: Paolo Gentilella
Second Assistant Director: Vincenzo Rosa
Casting: Sara Casani
Director of Photography: Valerio Azzali
Production Design: Valeria Zamagni
Costume Design: Alessandra Trippetta
Make-up: Beatrice LeucaditoSound (on set): Bertrand Chaumeton
Editing: Francesco Loffredo
Sound Design & Mix: Matteo Bendinelli
Colourist: Rosario Balistreri
Post-production: Artificio
Music: We Were There by Federico Albanese
