Who: Vancouver charity Children of the Streets, with Will for strategy and creative.
What: “Don't Put Your D*ck Here” an awareness campaign aimed at curbing the rise in sextortion among teen boys by demonstrating the potential hazards of sharing nudes.
When & Where: The campaign launched on March 6 and is running for eight weeks across online video, social and out-of-home. There is also a dedicated resource site at DontPutYourD1ckHere.ca, which provides tips about what to watch for in sextortion, such as random people sliding into your DMs, or pushing to chat in private.
Why: While sextortion has typically been regarded as a crime that tends to affect young girls, Children of the Streets says that young men are the primary victims. It cites data from CyberTip, a tipline for reporting online sexual abuse and exploitation, which found that 90% of sextortion incidents reported last year involved males 15 to 17.
According to Children of the Streets, teen boys are typically not aware of sextortion happening around them, or feel so comfortable with their online communities that they fail to consider the risk of sharing explicit pictures.
How: The campaign is anchored by a 30-second video spot containing a series of wince-inducing visuals that show places where a young man would most definitely not want to put his penis, such as a dartboard, between two cymbals, in a pot of boiling water or beneath a judge’s gavel.
The spot then shows a young man texting, accompanied by the message “How about here?” followed by the message: “Online predators are now targeting teen boys. If someone asks you to share a d*ck pic, don’t,” before driving to the dedicated URL.
The urgency of the issue required an approach capable of stopping teen boys in the tracks and getting them to pay attention, said Will's executive creative director, Lisa Lebedovich.
“They often see sextortion as a girls’ issue, and it often isn’t even on their radar to think they could be at risk,” she said. “This makes them an easy target. So, our challenge was to find a tone to appeal to them and get the awareness out in a way that would spread.”
And we quote: “This year, we have all heard the tragic news of young boys who have taken their own lives after falling victim to sextortion. This has made it all too clear that we need to reach teen boys to educate them on how to stay safe, before the predators do.” — Neely Yuda, manager, Children of the Street.
