The Art of SexEd by Durex is relevant for the Brand Experience & Activation category as it showcases a unique approach to brand building through experience design. By transforming museum paintings into sex education medium through Augmented Reality, Durex established an emotional connection with its target audience while providing a solution to a significant societal issue. The campaign's implementation across touchpoints and its empowering final phase, where young people to take action for their own sexual health by signing a petition, further enhances the brand experience by creating a sense of community and empowerment.

Poland's lack of sexual education is a growing crisis, with HIV cases doubling in the past decade. The Minister of Education from the ultra-conservative party has proposed banning independent sex education in schools, leaving young people in the dark. For three years running, Poland ranks last in the Contraception Policy Atlas Europe, partly due to the lack of reliable sex education in schools. Meanwhile, the government subsidizes trips to museums promoting conservative values and patriotism.

Durex which has made a long-term commitment to provide inclusive sexual education teamed up with Ponton – an independent organization of sex educators – to reach teens in Poland and educate them about safe and healthy sex.

The past eight years of ultra-conservative party rule in Poland have been evidence of the dominance of conservative values. A prime example of freedom-restricting actions was the tightening of abortion laws, coupled with limited access to contraceptives and a lack of comprehensive sexual education. Any attempts to introduce such education were met with accusations of sexualizing children and promoting LGBTQ+ ideologies. Independent organizations face challenges in organizing school classes and lack government funding for their activities while schools focus on conservative topics (natural fertility control, marital sex, sexual abstinence). This has led to a rise in depression and suicide rates among teenagers, who lack reliable knowledge about sexuality, struggle with body acceptance, and often lack parental support in navigating these difficult subjects. The Art of SexEd campaign is of paramount importance in a country that suppresses access to essential knowledge for young people.

Durex has found a way to bypass the restrictions of the Polish education system by transforming 100 paintings from major Polish museums into sex education medium. Through the use of Augmented Reality, we provided contextually related educational content, in a new and interactive way in a country notorious for its resistance to progressive reforms. By simply visiting the Durex website, pointing a camera at the painting, and scanning it, every student can receive content in a straightforward and easy-to-digest format. This way the lessons designed to teach conservative values became an opportunity for 2 million teenagers visiting museums every semester to access reliable sex education.

The Minister of Education wants to ban independent sexual education in schools but at the same time promotes trips to museums? No problem, we’ll provide the tool to teach teens about safe and healthy sex just in there. Through this innovative approach, teenagers can access reliable content that schools cannot provide. With the provocative message "They won't tell you that in school" appealing to the rebellious spirit of youths, Durex's move challenges outdated values and stands as a testament to their unwavering commitment to youth well-being, using art as a captivating medium to deliver a message that resonates with Polish teenagers.

The campaign was structured into three phases - explore, experience, and act - and was implemented across youths’ relevant touchpoints - TikTok, Snapchat, and Brainly (a homework platform) to inform about the project (explore) and build traffic to the website (experience). A group of TikTokers created content showcasing how art can unlock sexual education. Shockingly, the campaign's assets were blocked on these platforms, and influencers' content received a shadow ban, limiting their reach to only 63% of the average results (37% decrease in reach) and blocking paid support.

In the final campaign phase - act – Durex teamed up with Ponton (sex educators NGO) to provide a way for youths to fight for access to proper sex education in schools by signing a petition addressed to current MPs. Despite facing obstacles and censorship, Durex empowered young people to take action for their own sexual health.

The campaign gathered significant media attention, reaching over 19 million within the initial weeks, out of which 15,477,207 were attributed to earned media. Despite SoMe campaign obstacles (blocked assets, influencers’ shadow ban), Durex reached half of 15-18-year-old population in Poland (over 920k). With The Art of SexEd, Durex can provide reliable sexual education to approximately 2 million teenagers who visit Polish museums every semester. The website had 402,079 user-generated page views in the first three weeks, with an average of 21 pages per session, and an impressive 3 minutes 37 seconds of content exploration, despite the youths' low attention span. The numbers are growing due to the ongoing surge in educational trips in Polish schools. The campaign effectively engaged young people to take action for their own sexual health by signing a petition – during the first week it has already garnered 1630 signatures and the numbers continue to grow.