Children share things they shouldn’t on the internet.
Leo Burnett Change’s job for the NSPCC, the UK’s leading children’s charity against child abuse, was to make parents understand the implications of that statement.
The agency found a rather clever way to do that: with an ad that talks to their children. The innocence of its children’s storybook style (of both voiceover script and animation) makes the stories so much more chilling. And the message get through parents’ skins.
The campaign, called Share Aware, is aimed at parents of children aged 8 to 12. There are two executions, I saw your willy and Lucy and the boy. Both are running on TV, YouTube and on the NSPCC website.
The simple stories make parents aware that their children are messing around in “playgrounds” (mobile phones and computers) that are not child-proof. In I saw your willy, a silly prank photo of Alex’s willy that was sent via Snapchat to Katy goes viral.
“When Katy saw it, she thought it was very funny, so she screen-grabbed the picture and sent it to her friends; and they sent it to theirs…”
In Lucy and the boy, Lucy’s selfies that she uploads on social media nearly result in a play date with a grown-up man.
“She got a message from a ‘boy’. Then she got another asking her to upload a photo of herself at bedtime…”
In each film, the naivety of the hero children and the sweetness of their stories are thwacked by an ominous twist in the plot. Parents are given palpable experiences of the dangers of internet sharing.
The TV campaign launched on January 9 in the UK, shortly after many children received a phone, tablet or console for Christmas. The campaign began with 10 second teasers on mums-and-dads fave, Coronation Street, that continued over the weekend and encouraged parents to watch the full videos online.
The social campaign, that asks parents to share their experiences, will run until February 7.
And the NSPCC has produced an online guide in which social sites have been rated for safety by parents and children.
A panel of more than 500 parents from Mumsnet reviewed 48 websites. They reached a consensus that all social networks aimed at adults and teenagers were too easy for kids under 13 to sign up to. The guide was produced in conjunction with agency, Beyond.
Creative credits:
Advertising agency: Leo Burnett Change, UK
Executive Creative Director: Justin Tindall
Copywriter: Alison Steven
Art director: Liam Bushby
Creative director: Beri Cheetham
Production company: Hornet Inc
Directors: Dan & Jason
Executive Producer: Jan Stebbins
Producer: Cathy Kwan
Lead Character Designer: Adrian Johnson
Designer: Anna Bron
Animation Director: Mike Luzzi
Post-production: Prodigious
