Print and Publishing > Culture & Context

CHILD WEDDING CARDS

IMPACT BBDO, Dubai / UN WOMEN / 2024

Awards:

Silver Dubai Lynx
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Overview

Credits

Overview

Why is this work relevant for Print & Publishing?

To emotionally connect with our target - lawmakers - we wanted to have them experience the genuinely shocking moment of what it feels like to be invited to a child marriage through this campaign consisting of printed wedding cards.

Please note that the Jurors for Dubai Lynx will be coming from outside the region and may not be aware of the specific cultural nuances of your work.

Pakistan has the 6th highest number of girls married before the age of 18 in the world. According to UNICEF, the country has nearly 19 million child brides. The UN children's agency estimates that around 4.6 million were married before the age of 15 and 18.9 million before they turned 18.

Across Pakistan, civil society has been at the forefront of fighting to end child marriage, pushing for tougher laws and working closely with communities, authorities and religious groups to change attitudes.

What was needed most to bring about true change was a directive from the highest Islamic court in the country at a federal level that would say that 18 is the minimum age for marriage.

Rather than release a typical awareness campaign, we strategized that that our most effective way to help change the law would be to reach lawmakers directly, one-on-one, and to send them a personal motivational device.

We had to find a new mechanism to reach them, and our strategic insight was based around one particular cultural facet in Pakistan: the personal delivery of printed wedding cards inviting guests - the printed wedding card is so important even now that it is considered offensive to not receive one as an invite. Millions of colorful cards are printed every year that are delivered by hand or mail to guests.

We chose to follow a similar practise. The wedding, however, was that of a child bride. And so, of course, the invitation needed to reflect the same.

Background:

True change can only come with implementation of law, which lawmakers hold the key to. Our main objective, therefore, was to successfully reach lawmakers and get them to speak up further against child marriage in order to action a law.

A secondary objective for the campaign was to rather than spreading the message ourselves, turn the lawmakers into our ambassadors for the call against child marriage.

Describe the Impact:

We succeeded in reaching our target audience, receiving an almost immediate response from Members of Parliament, who chose to give statements holding the wedding cards, and asking other lawmakers to join them in the fight against child marriage.

Dozens of lawmakers joined our cause. In a session at the NationalAssembly of Pakistan, leaders held up the Child Wedding Cards to demand a law be put into place to raise the minimum marriageable age to 18.

The lawmakers' efforts combined to raise conversation on the topic of child marriage in society and on air. The Federal Islamic court, the highest religious court in the country, announced a landmark edict that 18 as the minimum age for marriage is Islamic.

Please tell us how the work was designed / adapted for a single country / region / market.

The work was designed specifically for Pakistani lawmakers to address a national problem, using a very specific cultural insight.

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