The Campaign

The School for Justice takes the victims of sex trafficking out of prostitution and into prosecution. A school and an education programme, the world’s first School for Justice was launched on April 6, 2017 in Mumbai. The School for Justice is working with some of India’s most respected law universities to train girls to become public prosecutors with the power and determination to challenge India’s legal system from within – and ultimately prosecute the criminals who once owned them. A tangible solution to a deeply rooted problem, the school itself is the campaign. The School for Justice is not only starting a conversation around child prostitution on an epic scale, without the use of traditional media spend – but is also fundamentally shifting opinion. The School for Justice is built to last. And the class of 2018 is already on its way. Not just changing the conversation, but changing lives.

Creative Execution

On a conceptual level the campaign combined two things: hard data on the statistics of child prostitution in India with the emotional, human stories of the girls. The campaign’s key messages were communicated through very shareable content, not only highlighting the injustice around child prostitution in a clear and rational way, but that also empowering the victims and turning them into heroes. The focus was on telling the story on many different levels and throughout many different channels over the course of the communication campaign, building the audience with each piece of content, and always leading them to the website where they could actively ‘Support the School for Justice’, through donations, collaborations and sharing. The content included a press conference introducing the School in Mumbai, a photographic exhibition of the class of 2017 and their stories, a website, several campaign films, a PR campaign and a social media campaign.

Results

The challenge was to get taboo topics around child prostitution openly discussed in Indian media and amongst the public. The first responses from the national and international press have been favourable: - Endorsements from UK’s Law Society, Geena Davis foundation and Malala Fund - Covered by leading newspapers such as Mid-Day and Mumbai Mirror - 34M+ local reach Very promising is the reaction of the public across social media. For a topic that’s previously been left unspoken, India got vocal. Very vocal: - 1.1G people where reached through social media - Levels of engagement are high (up to 28%) - Right local audience is being reached; 91% of the Facebook fans is Indian - 70% of people who joined the conversation is male Of course, The School for Justice will be a real success when the first girls are pub-lic prosecutors and the criminals who once owned them behind bars.

The brief was for a campaign to create awareness around child prostitution in India. When we discovered the statistic of 1.2 million children in forced prostitution vs. 55 legal cases, it was clear a more fundamental and more direct approach was needed. The approach combined hard data on the statistics of child prostitution in India with the emotional, human stories of the girls. It was critical to convey the power of their stories to get the target group – and beyond - to actively support the School for Justice.

The brief was to create an advertising campaign to create awareness around child prostitution in India. When the agency discovered the statistic of 1.2 million children in forced prostitution vs. 55 legal cases, it was clear a more fundamental approach was needed than a standard advertising campaign. The strategy was firstly, to create a tangible and long-term solution to a deeply root-ed problem. Secondly, to raise awareness about child prostitution and the impunity around it – and in doing so changing opinions from seeing the girls as complicit in the crime, to the victims of exploitation. Fundamentally the strategy was not only to start a conversation; but also to get the target group – and beyond - to actively support the School for Justice by sharing the campaign with their network and by offering support via social media.