A cyber-bullying advert created by South Africans is winning international awards… and should be something we all watch and show our kids.
The message is both simple and incredibly powerful.
Amri Botha and Carina Coetzee from Ninety9cents were “pretty shocked and pleasantly surprised,” when they were announced as the winners of the 48-hour Cannes Young Lions competition.
Ninety9cents (99c) announced that the employees, Amri Botha (post-roduction editor) and Carina Coetzee (copywriter) were awarded the top prize in the South African leg of the competition.
This honour will see them heading to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity later this month, where they will represent their country in the Young Lions competition.
Contestants were challenged to create a 60-second commercial for UNICEF South Africa that addressed the issue of cyber-bullying. The catch? They had 48-hours to conceptualise and produce a commercial ready for screening in Ster-Kinekor cinemas.
Their commercial, depicts a group chat on a mobile phone. The messenger features a ‘built-in-conscience’, which requires the sender to answer a multitude of questions prior to their message being sent. Appealing to their conscience, the sender ultimately decides against sending a nasty message about a peer.
“While bullying of students has always been an issue, it has been exacerbated by social media. A seemingly harmless action can inflict great damage, and we wanted to highlight this by imagining a messaging feature that prompts the user to think twice before sending something hurtful,” explains Botha.
Says Coetzee, “Pulling together a concept and producing a cinema-ready commercial within two days of briefing was no easy feat, but it was an exciting challenge and we are incredibly honoured and humbled to have made it this far.”
The duo will compete against other finalists from across the world for the title of Young Lions of Cannes 2017, in the Film category. The teams will, once again, have 48 hours to complete their challenge for a non-profit organisation.
Krige van Rensburg, deputy creative director at 99c, says, “Having two of our colleagues represent their country at the world’s most prestigious creativity awards speaks volumes about the talent we have at 99c.
“We are incredibly proud of Amri and Carina, and we will be cheering them on every step of the way!”
Watch the 60 second spot below:
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