UNICEF | First Day Fears

THE BACKGROUND
UNICEF had a global theme for the year of this campaign that was around “Ending School Violence,” but school violence looks very different in different countries. For example, gun violence in the US vs corporeal violence in India vs bullying everywhere. We needed a campaign that could truly span the full globe and all of the various forms of school violence.

THE CHALLENGE
How do we create a powerful anti-school violence message that could resonate across different cultures with different school violence issues?

THE “A-HA”
Rather than focus so heavily on the individual forms of violence, we decided it was more powerful to key in on the universal sense of “fear” schoolchildren felt regardless of form.

THE INSIGHT
No matter where it is, you’d be terrified by what kids worry about at school.

THE IDEA
”First Day Fears.” While we’re all used to having “first day fears” from our schooldays, they are a lot scarier and serious when the fears are driven by school violence,