On International Women Day, we wanted to start a national debate on sexism and gender inequality in Poland. We needed to reach people who had never considered these issues. To get them involved in the conversation, we strategically took over a cultural symbol: the oldest, most iconic Polish porn magazine “Your Weekend”. We bought it, hacked it, and closed it down. Provocatively transforming it in a platform debating sexism and gender portrayal online and offline. Thousands upon thousands of people joined the conversation, and while we successful ignited the debate, there is much more to do.

In Poland, everyday sexism is still acceptable, women are marginalised and patronised, and schools don’t offer sexual education. And since 2015, Poland’s autocratic government has demonstrated their will to subordinate women: threatening, among other things, draconian restrictions on abortion.

Movements like #MeeToo have put gender equality and sexism issues front and centre globally, but in the very conservative and religious Polish society, they remain a taboo. It was time to change that.

Gazeta.pl is a leading Polish news portal that aims at not only reporting about the world but also at changing it. It has built its credibility and success on provocative reporting and mass online engagement, starting numerous cultural debates.

We teamed up Gazeta.pl with Mastercard and BNP Paribas, two brands with a long-term commitment to empowering women, to start a conversation that would engage the whole country to truly change the narrative around women in Poland.

For 27 years, “Your Weekend” – one of Poland longest running and most read adult magazine - reduced women to sex objects. In December 2018, when it was up for sale, we bought it immediately.

And used it to challenge the culture of sexism and gender inequality it had contributed to building. We transformed “Your Weekend” in a conversation-sparking, ground-breaking magazine promoting diverse and progressive narratives of femininity.

We teamed up Gazeta.pl, our client and leading Polish news portal, with Mastercard and BNP Paribas, two brands with a long-term commitment to empower women, to create this last issue.

We published it on International Women’s Day. We kept the regular sections and columns but reimagined the content around sexual education, gender portrayal, equal rights, sexism and more. It was the symbolic end of an era and a spectacular beginning for a much-needed national conversation.

Due to the lack of formal sex education, entire generations of Polish men learned about women from porn publications. So, we decided to use the same vehicle that contributed to the issues, to tackle them.

In a powerful twist on the most iconic Polish porn magazine, we created “The Last Ever Issue" - a print and online platform to spark a national conversation on sexism and gender portrayal.

We wanted to provoke and offer a new perspective, but we didn’t want anyone to feel judged. The success of this high visibility and sensitive project depended greatly on having the right language and clients aligned on campaign goals, key messages and timings.

The Last Ever Issue launched on International Women Day when we had the best chance to create a groundswell that would mean people brought up on the magazine’s biased gender portrayal would have no other choices than to listen.

We started with a teaser campaign to create excitement about The Last Ever Issue and to get the press and public talking about the issues it raised. We strategically sent out hundreds of copies to influencers and teased the cover on Instagram.

The launch on International Women’s Day leveraged the channels that used to distribute adult content to raise the issues of sexism and gender portrayal in Poland and created a groundswell. Our multiple pieces of content spread organically.

gazeta.pl opened a dedicated online hub. Both Mastercard and BNP Paribas amplified the campaign on their owned channels. Our cover muses, including Joanna Jedrzejczak (1.2M Instagram followers), took to social to push our message.

Our PR strategy was supported by an integrated campaign which combined clickbait tactics with smart targeting. We leveraged the biggest Polish publisher’s distribution networks offline and online.

On International Women Day, “The Last Ever Issue” sent shockwaves on Polish traditional and social media channels.

The campaign made the evening news and was mentioned by Poland’s most influential TV and radio shows such as “Pytanie na Sniadanie” and “Szklo Kontaktowe”. It even featured as the main story on gazeta.pl’s biggest competitor - onet.pl.

On Facebook and Twitter, the hashtag #YourWeekend dominated the conversation that day, and thousands upon thousands of people joined in the conversation, including local celebrity and Polsat TV reporter Przemyslaw Bialkowski, sport personality Joanna Jedrzejczak, and business leader and CEO of Provident Agnieszka Klos.

The Last Ever Issue organically reached 4.5M+ people and generated 25M+ media impressions.

It drove over 500k unique visitors to gazeta.pl in the first few days of the campaign. 50% said “The Last Ever Issue” was a good and necessary idea, and 43% agreed that sexism is a topic that does not get covered enough by the media.

“The Last Ever Issue” quickly became the best-selling issue of “Your Weekend”. And the online issue was the best-selling e-magazine in Poland in March 2019.

Most importantly, we transformed a vehicle for objectifying women into an empowerment platform. We closed down a porn magazine, and successfully ignited a national conversation.

But it’s clear that there is much more to do, this is why we will continue to add educative and thought-provoking content online and on social. And, together with leading Polish cultural organisation, Praktycy Kultury, we are planning educational initiatives and equality workshops.

Sexism and misogyny is still a problem in many countries. In Poland we decided to address it by buying out and closing the most iconic Polish porn magazine - "Your Weekend". A magazine that due to the lack of any formal sex education raised generations of men on a biased portrayal of women. This key local insight helped us to make a truly impactful campaign which managed to engage the country in a conversation about topics deemed taboo by our traditional culture. As a part of the campaign, the "iconic" magazine's social media channels were transformed into a platform for women empowerment and gender equality education.