A few weeks ago, J.Walter Thompson invited people to test their humanity, with this premise, “In a world of clickbait headlines and self-obsessed social media, J. Walter Thompson London has created a test designed to judge your humanity. Will you pass The Humanity Test?”
8,806 people have taken the test so far. 72%, or 6,383, people have failed.
It turns out that The Humanity Test was a campaign in partnership with UN Women NC UK to raise awareness of the 39,000 girls forced into child marriages every day. 72% of those who tried could not accurately identify images of all brides.
The test is a recreation of the conventional reCAPTCHA human test commonly used by online sites against spam bots. But rather than proving you are a human, this reCAPTCHA requires users to instead prove their humanity by selecting the pictures of brides, before revealing the child brides they overlooked and their harrowing stories.
The test then prompts participants to help #drawaline against child marriage – which affects 750,000 women and girls around the world, yet is rarely discussed as a major humanitarian problem. Participants can support the cause further by sharing the humanity test across social media, and spreading awareness about the issue, mobilising support for the cause and UN Women NC UK’s mission.
To highlight the issue of child marriage, the creative plays on people’s preconceptions of marriage, which tend to be shaped by conventional cultural representations, and challenges them to reconsider their assumptions and share the test as a result.
Lucas Peon, executive creative director at J. Walter Thompson London, noted, “We needed to tell these stories and bring attention to this shocking issue in a way that couldn’t be ignored. The Humanity Test hits people when they least expect it, holding up a mirror to their preconceptions and sanitised view of the world.”
Steve Edwards, chief marketing officer of UN Women National Committee UK, added, “In an environment where charity organisations clamour for a share of the population’s compassion, we asked JWT to find a way to elevate our message in peoples’ hearts and minds. JWT has used insights into human behaviour to create this unique idea with unsettling results. We hope that the sheer numbers of people who failed the test will shed light on the gulf between our everyday reality and the issues facing millions of real women and girls elsewhere in the world. One of the biggest challenges for a cause is to help audiences relate to the human at the end of a charity’s aid programme. By challenging perceptions around a key issue facing women, JWT are encouraging audiences to engage with UN Women NC UK, take action to support us, and be the catalyst for global change.”
Credits:
Creative agency: J. Walter Thompson London
Executive Creative Director: Lucas Peon
Creatives: James Hobbs & Jeremy Little
Creative Producers: Laurie Carter & Joseph Bassary
Creative Technologists: Dave Morgan & Vicky Keeley
Planner: Eleanor Metcalf
Senior Account Director: Mini Sinha
Account Managers: James Llewelyn-Davies & Karen Barak
Designer: Lee Jarrold
Client: UN Women NC UK
Chief Marketing Officer: Steve Edwards
