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Our brief was to come up with a unique, disruptive idea that would not only raise awareness of the issue of child marriages in Pakistan, but to do it at a zero media budget. Strategically, we were also tasked to educate the public about the long-term harmful effects of getting a girl married young instead of educating her.

The overall objective was to reach the ears and desks of parliamentary figures who had the authority to pass laws in order to reduce this inequality.

Pakistan has one of the worst records of child marriages in the world. Almost a quarter of all Pakistani women in the last ten years have been married before the age of 18. The practice almost always comes at a disadvantage for the girl child, who as a result of an early marriage faces illiteracy, depression, and severe health issues.

The UN states: "Child marriage is often the result of entrenched gender inequality, making girls disproportionately affected by the practice. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage among boys is just one fifth that among girls."

Bills to raise the legal marriage age in Pakistan to 18 have been rejected previously by the government on religious grounds, or by being influenced by powerful decision-makers in the country's Islamic Council.

The traditional Pakistani bride is known to wear an elaborate wedding outfit: bright, colorful, heavily embroidered dresses combined with flashy jewelery. Every year, the bridal-wear fashion industry in Pakistan hosts large events in which new styles are revealed for that year. These shows are typically attended by local celebrities where gowns sell for millions of rupees.

Our idea was to hijack the country's largest bridal-wear fashion show by collaborating with the nation's best known fashion designer and by introducing a new kind of bridal gown that represents the sad state of affairs in Pakistan, and highlights the fact that an early marriage results in loss of education and empowerment.

A new "Bridal Uniform" was thus formed by merging a typical Pakistani schoolgirl's uniform and a traditional Pakistani bride's wedding gown.

Data shows that education can be one of the most powerful tools to enable girls to avoid child marriage and fulfil their potential. The longer a girl stays in school, the less likely she is to be married before the age of 18 and have children during her teenage years. We used this strategic angle to build our idea around: the school uniform being merged with a bridal gown communicated the horror that child marriages bring.

Media-wise, by disrupting a platform like the Bridal Couture Week, we were able to piggyback on the media wave that followed the event, completely hijacking the conversation around it.

Through the stunt, we first targeted Pakistani influencers and media personnel who could spread the conversation that built pressure to involve policymakers. And second, through on-ground sessions, directly addressing the masses where these practices were widely prevalent.

In collaboration with the nation's best known bridal-wear artist Ali Xeeshan, we meticulously designed the new kind of a bridal outfit — one that symbolizes the trade-off that takes place when a girl is married young and is deprived of her right to an education — and revealed it on the bridal fashion industry's biggest night.

As the showstopper of the night, amidst bejewelled adult brides in elaborate gowns, and with the nation's top fashion bloggers recording, out walked on the ramp a little girl wearing a Pakistani schoolgirl's uniform embellished with beautiful traditional bridal motifs, complete with a school bag.

We researched a number of traditional bridalwear motifs in order to form a perfect balance between the existing uniform and the touches of celebration we added to it.

The campaign was followed up by an online petition and onground educational material.

The disruptive stunt went viral and generated almost 500,000,000 social and news-media impressions, more than any campaign for this cause has ever done in Pakistan.

Pakistani Senator S.Kamran took note of our campaign by name while proposing a bill to raise the legal marriage age to 18. The Islamic Council in turn proposed a groundbreaking amendment: a girl will not be legally allowed to leave her parents’ house in marriage until she turned 18.

More recently, the Pakistani Senate approved a bill for raising the marriageable age to 18.

The campaign further led to the police no longer turning a blind eye to underage marriages: arrests were made of people who were involved in such practices.

It is pertinent to note that while the campaign generated millions of dollars in media coverage, the dress cost only under $100 to make, using existing school uniform samples and inexpensive bridal embroidery motifs.