Winners & Shortlists

EVERY NO OUGHT TO BE HEARD

TitleEVERY NO OUGHT TO BE HEARD
BrandAMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Product/ServiceMY BODY, MY RIGHTS
Category C02. MICROSITE
Entrant Company AIR Brussels, BELGIUM
Advertising Agency AIR Brussels, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Gregory Ginterdaele/Marie Laure Cliquennois Air Brussels Creative Director
Wendy Wauters Air Brussels Creative
Karl Magnus Air Brussels Creative
Greg Pin Air Brussels Digital Creative Producer
Julie De Smedt Air Brussels Account Manager
Gilles Deketelaere Idweaver Front End Developer
Philippe Hensmans Amnesty International Advertiser Supervisor

Creative Execution

How can you call attention to rape in a way that makes a lasting impression? By addressing people when they don’t expect it at all... We invited people to take a online test by a fake brand. We developed an actual online hearing test, but replaced the typical beep by the sound of a woman screaming ‘no’ (from a soft whisper to a loud scream). At the end of the test we calculated the participant’s result and revealed Amnesty International’s key message: “Every NO ought to be heard.” We then asked them to share their results to spread the word.

It didn’t take long for the press to jump on it; we were covered by the Flemish and French TV news, radio, national and international press and a whole debate started on blogs, Facebook and in the Belgian Parliament. The test results were enthusiastically shared by Facebook users and generated traffic towards the website. We even reached Joëlle Milquet, Minister for Equal Opportunities, who put the topic at the top of our parliament’s agenda.

Can you help me do the dishes, can you take out the garbage...” We are all familiar with these everyday questions. And it’s a general truth that men tend to develop selective hearing when it comes to the things their partner says or asks. But sometimes this goes further than just ignoring a simple question... That’s why Amnesty used “hearing problems” as a creative vehicle for its campaign. Because some men really seem deaf to a NO from their partner... and become rapists. In Belgium, for example, 8 rapes are reported per day, with 25% being raped by their own partner. In fact, 56% of Belgians know a victim of sexual violence. With our campaign, we wanted to point out that saying NO is a basic right, and that this word should never fall on deaf ears.