2020 Winner
2020 Winners
Canadian Centre for Child Protection
Lolli: The Exhibit Nobody Wants to Talk About
The rapid growth of online platforms that encourage content sharing has made the distribution of child pornography or child sexual abuse material (CSAM) easier than ever. Every 12 hours the Canadian Centre for Child Protection detects 10,824 new images of child sexual abuse online through an automated web crawler and platform designed to detect - but not remove - these images.
Legally, the removal of these horrific images is out of the control of those who monitor for, in this case the Centre and left to the discretion of the tech industry. Unfortunately, despite the severity of this global epidemic, the tech industry, policymakers and the Canadian public turn a blind eye toward the uncomfortable topic.
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s objective with this new initiative was to break through the blindness, capture the attention of the public and policy makers, and spark a conversation towards actionable change.
Insights and Strategy
While the subject matter is universally deplored, its sensitive nature means that people have difficulty facing it and therefore avoid taking it on. We knew that creating a campaign to tell people about the issue would fall on deaf ears - we needed to get the attention of caring Canadians and national media first, then present them with the scale and scope of a problem that’s as prevalent in their backyard as it is across the globe.
In our research, we discovered that the term “lolli” is used as online code by child sex offenders to reference and denigrate their victims. The lollipop became our trojan horse, the innocent proxy for victims of child sexual assault material. The reality that predators use the term to discuss victims, coupled with lollipop’s inherent association with childhood innocence, was a gut-wrenching juxtaposition of the symbol and its hijacked use by a community of covert criminals.
We looked at what people were paying attention to in the moment... what our social feeds were flooded with and what made the nightly news. It seemed like with each passing day, another fun, visual “Instagrammable pop up” appeared in the ether, capturing our interest and attention.
Execution
Lolli: The Exhibit Nobody Wants To Talk About was a high impact visual installation designed to draw consumers in, then confront them with the realities of this global epidemic.
From floor to ceiling, we lined the interior of a room at Stackt Market in Toronto with 10,824 lollipops: one representing each new image of child pornography detected online every 12 hours.
We teased the launch through social posts and donated out-of-home and then launched the exhibit by inviting national media and influencers for a first look. Spokespeople from the Centre and the Toronto Police were on-site to highlight the prominence of the issue beyond the disturbing visuals. We also engaged local officials to experience the installation, spreading the message into the government sector, while coverage from major outlets across the country started flooding newsfeeds and creating intrigue.
Following the media day, we opened to the public. Those who did not see the previous coverage were drawn to Lolli’s fun and vibrant looking exterior, intrigued by why it might be something people don’t want to talk about.
Once inside, the symbol of childhood innocence took on a disturbing dual meaning, as staggering statistics lined the walls along with verbatim quotes found on the dark web. Audio recordings from actual survivors detailed their pain, shame, and optimism for a solution. Even the sickly sweet smell of the lollipops contributed to a feeling of anger and unrest. Spokespeople from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection were positioned at the exit to help outline the efforts of the Centre and provide hope.
Results and Impact
Over the course of three days, 1,300 Canadians visited Lolli, including Toronto Mayor John Tory. National news outlets such as the CBC, Global News and CityNews helped bring the story to life - even the New York Times rushed down a photographer to capture the experience in advance of releasing a three-part Sunday feature.
To date, the initiative has achieved over 4,500,000 social and 125,000,000+ earned media impressions with a 580% increase in site traffic.
Most importantly, the campaign has led the Canadian Centre for Child Protection to more prominence on the world stage, catching the attention of industry leaders and government, opening discussions of how they can work together to protect our children and begin the fight against this global epidemic.