Sunday, January 17, 2016

Public Service through Porn?



I shared a great public service initiative last week in the pop-up gun store with the alternative labels.  This week, I want to share another one that I found through the same issue of AdWeek, this time in The Year in Creative summary (which is worth reading all the way through BTW). 

This initiative also takes an alternative approach.  They use the “adult video” format to demonstrate proper breast and testicular self-checks.  They inserted (pardon the pun) these demonstrations right in the middle of the scene that viewers were probably watching for other reasons. 

You can see a description of the campaign on Vimeo here: Warning – although they cover up the key body parts, you can pretty much see the adult action in the background so you might want to avoid watching this at work or with your kids.

What makes these two campaigns similar to each other, and effective on the market, is that they exploit domains that is already popular (guns and porn) to get engagement from the target audience. Then they insert the public service message. 

Of course, there is a key difference as well.  The one last week used a gun store to promote an anti-gun message.  This one uses porn but it is not an anti-porn or anti-trafficking message.  The message complements (and maybe even compliments) the domain rather than contradicting it.