How we altered the outdoor ad space to talk about prostitution
PRO CENTER is the Norwegian national center of expertise on prostitution.
CONTROVERSIAL. For their 30th anniversary, they wanted us to create an awareness campaign targeting the general population in Oslo. Their goal was to change negative opinions towards prostitutes and highlight the function of their Centre in society, which is an important one:
To work against social exclusion and prevent harms connected to prostitution. A lot of people feel that prostitution is a threat to several social and moral orders and thus treat prostitutes as less worthy human beings. Pro Centre wants the society to acknowledge the person behind the title «prostitute» and «whore».
"MAKE THEM THINK"
- Erik Heisholt
USING THE MEDIA. Our idea was to utilize the outdoor media, in combination with the posters, as a metaphor for our message. By altering the outdoor media and showing women being stepped on, treated like trash and falling out of the frame, we didn’t convey our message in explicit words, but rather in actions representing how society treat persons selling sex.
PLACEMENT. Locating the campaign at central bus- and tram stops in Oslo, where people, much like the prostitutes, are waiting for a ride, we used those pockets of time where people might have a chance to pause and reflect on what is being displayed and at the same time is happening right in front of them.
This campaign won the first prize for best campaign at Visuelt (festival and prizes for visual communication in Norway). This is the judges comments (sorry, most of it is not in english)
