Sweetie
Terre des Hommes
Issue 31 | June 2014
Agency
Lemz
Creative Team
Visuals/Animation Eyehear, JDBgraphics 3D production Motek Entertainment 3D caracter artists Brekel Khitan Digital 3D animator Michiel van Iperen Technique Code d’Azur Digital Production MediaMonks Sound Soundcircus Studio De Keuken Post-production Storm Film production Tetteroo Medias
Date
2013
Background
Terre des Hommes was an international charity founded in Switzerland in 1960 to promote the rights of children. The Netherlands branch had established nearly 300 projects in 22 countries to defend children.
Webcam Child Sex Tourism was a relatively new form of child exploitation, which was spreading like an epidemic. Men from rich countries paid children in poor countries to perform sexual acts in front of webcams.
Lemz believed that creative agencies should use their talents and resources to make this world a better place. Early in 2013, having learned about WCST, the agency volunteered its services to Terre des Hommes.
Idea
WCST happened tens of thousands of times a day but prior to this campaign, only six men had ever been convicted of the crime.
The agency developed a 3D model that looked and moved like a 10-year-old Filipino girl, an avatar called Sweetie.
The completely fake little girl went into an online chat room, where men offered to pay her money to take off her clothes in front of her webcam.
Researchers said they were 'petrified' by the avalanche of enquiries to Sweetie.
Results
In two months, 1,000 predators from 71 countries were caught in the act and identified and their names given to Interpol.
The YouTube video https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=aGmKmVvCzkw was viewed 4.6million times. In total, the video has reached 1 billion viewers on every continent, putting WCST firmly on the agenda. In the Philippines, the National Police announced that WCST is now their number one crime. Online predators are being arrested and children forced into this form of online depravation are being rescued.
Our Thoughts
The agency has said, “The Sweetie campaign proves that creative agencies can have significant impacts on global problems that may seem to have no relevance to our industry or to our daily lives. We call upon the worldwide creative industry to dedicate more of their creativity and passion to solving the many problems that face humankind; because the power of creativity can provide new solutions and new hope to a world in which deepening crises, growing inequity, and profound injustice are increasingly met with cynicism, apathy, and paralysis. We have an opportunity to forge a better future...and to have fun doing it together.
We couldn’t have put it better. This is work which does us all proud.