Brief Explanation

Although people are aware that human trafficking is happening in the Philippines, not all know how serious and prevalent the problem is. It is therefore important to get the support of leaders from different sectors. The task is to ensure that the invitation would not get lost in the deluge of direct mails sent to these VIPs. Hence, it was designed as an item one would least expect to see in an executive’s desk – a paper boat.

The Brief

The Philippines is ranked fourth in the world for child sex trafficking. Called to Rescue, a non-profit organization that fights human trafficking, launched an event to make key influential people aware of the problem and make advocates out of them. The brief was to ensure attendance of these VIPs in the big launch of Called to Rescue.

How the final design was conceived

The design was inspired by the fact that sex trafficking victims are shipped out of the country by land, air and sea. As a way to dramatize that, the invitation was designed as a boat. Once opened though, a letter of SOS from a sex trafficked child is revealed. What seemed innocent on the outside turned out to contain a grave message inside. The invite appeared to look filthy to give the recipient a feel of the victim’s environment.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Important people from media, advertising, corporations, religious sector and government officials attended the event. More importantly, most of the attendees pledged to put a stop to this problem by declaring how they plan to help.