Simple, stark and clever
This stark advertisement recently netted a Young Creatives award for the Net#Work ad agency’s Graeme Jenner and Paulo Grippa at the Cannes-Lions advertising awards.
Pitted against young advertising executives from around the world, the two chose this simple curriculum vitae idea to convey the message that the rapid smashing of the child labour system may make things worse and not better for children. It features a case study of a seven-year-old girl who has been forced into prostitution. An arresting photograph of her is stapled to one corner.
The advertisement lobbies for better working conditions for children as a stepping stone toward eventually getting rid of child labour, given that many sectors of the Asian economy are built on young workers like this.
It sounds as constructive as Ronald Reagan’s “constructive engagement” policy with South Africa in the Eighties, but the execution of the idea may show that a new breed of advertisers has the talent for fine advocacy campaigns.