Social and Influencer > Craft

SWEETIE

LEMZ, Amsterdam / TERRE DES HOMMES / 2014

Awards:

Gold Cannes Lions
CampaignCampaign(opens in a new tab)
Presentation Image
Case Film

Overview

Credits

Overview

Execution

Sweetie's effectiveness depended on her design quality and believability. To catch pedophiles we had to convince them that Sweetie was real. So we brought her to life using 3D technology, making her look and move exactly like a real 10-year-old girl. Using motion capture, we translated movements of an actor to Sweetie. Each of Sweetie's movements is a separate film that started and ended with the same frame to avoid glitches between movements. Using an interactive video application we controlled her movements as we chatted on webcam with pedophiles. Sweetie's design and her real-time interaction capabilities made pedophile's experiences realistic.

Outcome

Over 1 billion people saw the campaign. We proved that our solution is effective in stopping predators. Our petition has already gotten over half a million signatures and will be used in the coming months to pressure governments to do more. WCST is on the world agenda and governments are taking action:

Interpol and police in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, and South Africa arrested predators based on evidence we collected. The Philippines Police announced that WCST is the country’s #1 crime. Argentina increased penalties for perpetrators of WCST. Dozens of children have been rescued in the Philippines.

Strategy

Webcam Child Sex Tourism (WCST) is a new phenomenon that’s spreading like an epidemic: Men from rich countries pay children in poor countries to perform sexual acts in front of webcams. Terre des Hommes works to rescue victims, but there are too many. To raise international awareness and pressure governments to act, we found a revolutionary solution based on our own in-depth research into WCST.

Insight: We found that these crimes happen tens of thousands of times a day, but only 6 men have ever been convicted because child victims don't report them.

Our solution: Police must actively patrol the websites where WCST happens.

Idea: To prove our point, we set an online trap to catch child predators. We created "Sweetie," an interactive 3D model that looks and moves like a 10-year-old Filipino girl. Then we went online and caught 1,000 predators in the act. Sweetie instantly became world news.

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