Missing Students is an example of how the unconventional use of media can affect not only people who come into direct contact with it but also many others, as this type of approach has the ability to generate conversations on social media and set the journalistic media agenda. An issue as crucial to a country's future was going unnoticed months before the elections. The correct use of the media made the topic relevant at a very important moment.

UNICEF works to ensure the rights of children and adolescents, concentrating its efforts on the most vulnerable.

Speaking of guaranteeing the rights of children and adolescents, the pandemic that shook the school environment contributed to more than 2 million children being out of school.

A sad reality that was not a topic or priority for society or government representatives, due to lack of knowledge and distance.

The challenge of the briefing was to bring the issue to the forefront of discussions in light of the upcoming elections in Brazil.

The objective was to alert and raise awareness among the population, promoting engagement and the commitment of states and their representatives to prioritize this issue. The main insight was to understand the effect of school dropout and its consequences, namely, the streets. That is why the street was chosen for the exhibition of the monument, enhancing the authenticity of the action.

2 million children are out of school in Brazil, but just a few months before the presidential election hardly anyone talked about it. To draw attention to this issue, Unicef inaugurated a monument with a teacher and her students in the classroom. It seemed like a tribute to education, but days later the statues of the students disappeared, showing what happens in most schools. This fact caught the attention of the media and when the subject was already in the main news, the statues reappeared in the streets in situation of risk. Each of them represents one of the reasons why millions of children drop out of school. A child appeared working selling sweets, another appeared holding a baby and so on. A sign next to them explained what had happened and called people to vote for education and put pressure on their candidates to show their proposals.

With the aim of going beyond a conventional media strategy, the action created monuments in three capitals, which became the media themselves, reverberating in spontaneous conversations in various media channels.

To do so, the strategy established two campaign phases, the first with the objective of generating attention for the education cause and the second to promote awareness about school dropout among the different target audiences: general society, opinion leaders, government authorities, and candidates.

Starting with the launch of the monuments and the dynamic of disappearance, the strategy planned the use of Unicef's proprietary channels, and the support of influencers to amplify the result of spontaneous media. TV news shows and influencers covered the fact, and the action went viral.

After revealing the reason for the disappearance , the media strategy counted on the reinforcement of impact efforts with spaces on TV, Radio, Social Networks, Magazine, Digital Media, and DOOH.

To bring attention to the issue of school dropout with limited investment, we developed a two-fold strategy focused on generating attention and creating awareness. Our plan involved creating a Monument to Education in three prominent cities. The children featured in the monuments disappeared after a few days and were found in situations of vulnerability that closely reflected the reality of school dropout, based on the data collected.

Executing the plan was challenging as we needed to create an attractive and eye-catching monument in three different cities simultaneously, in well-known and frequented places. The monument also had to disappear simultaneously, creating a monumental-scale operation that would capture the attention of the country. We partnered with major influencers who were supporters of UNICEF, and their involvement further amplified the campaign's reach, generating spontaneous media coverage and making it a central priority for the Ministry of Education.

The action generated hundreds of posts on social media platforms (Twitter and Instagram, with reels and stories) from people who saw the monuments, commented on the stages, shared media coverage or influencer content highlighting each moment of the action. In total, the reach of the posts was 59 million people and it became news in the country's main newspapers (TV and internet), generating an estimated value of $4 million in earned media, which resulted in almost 180 million impacts. However, the true impacts were raising awareness among the population - as education became the most searched topic on Google about elections during the election month, and a concrete response - as this mobilization led the new Brazilian government to prioritize reducing the number of children out of school.

The vast majority of children who drop out of school in Brazil end up on the streets. Therefore, using a monument and its statues to address school dropout on the very streets where the problem occurs makes the work very relevant.

In 2021, 1.4 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 were officially out of school. Between 2016 and 2020, 35 thousand children and adolescents up to 19 years old were violently killed in Brazil - an average of 7 thousand per year. 1.758 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 were in situations of child labor in Brazil before the pandemic. Children who are out of school are exposed to situations of physical, sexual, and psychological violence.

However, society and the government were ignoring the vulnerability of these children who are out of school. For example, spending on education has decreased for the 5th consecutive year and is at its lowest point in ten years. Addressing this sad reality was urgent, but we had a government that neglected this situation.