2020 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Challenges and Goals
Women in abusive relationships are terrified to leave their partners. They know that if their abuser finds any evidence that they are trying to leave, violence will escalate and their lives will be in danger.

Interval House, Canada’s oldest shelter for abused women, had a very unique challenge. How could it reach a very specific group of women – those in abusive relationships – and find a way to get them the information they need to leave, all without their abusive partners finding out?

Insights and Strategy
Introducing Freedom Tampons – all the information a woman needs to leave her abusive relationship, in the one place a man will never look. The shelter created a special brand of tampons offering discreet protection for women escaping domestic abuse.

Each tampon has life-saving information printed right on it, including Interval House’s crisis hotline, a checklist of what a woman needs to leave, and signs of abuse. Each tampon comes in a resealable package that doesn’t give any indication of the information that’s inside.

Execution
Interval House sent full boxes of tampons to counsellors, healthcare workers, and the police, knowing that these people have direct, daily contact with women in abusive relationships. The organization also distributed them in public women’s washrooms, the one place that a woman in an abusive relationship is alone and away from her abuser.

Results
Since the launch of Freedom Tampons, calls to the Interval House Crisis Hotline have increased by 176%. The response has been so positive, and the demand so great, that a second run of tampons is in the works. But the real success of this campaign depends on it remaining a secret, which it has. There are no o media impressions; no PR amplification, and therefore, no abuser will ever find out about it.

Credits

Creative Agency: UNION
Chief Creative Officer: Lance Martin
Managing Director: Catherine Marcolin
Director of Strategy: Josh Hansen
Strategist: Maxine Thomas
Creative Director: Adam Thur
Creative Director: Rica Eckersley
Art Director: Adam Thur
Copywriter: Rica Eckersley
Copywriter: Jennifer Canham
VP, Integrated Production: Jennifer Dark
Account Director: Kristine Lafreniere
Account Manager: Beatrice Dauphinais-Bourque

Client: Interval House

Boxes printer: CJ Graphics
Producer: Christine Chu

Tampon sleeves printer: Clockwork Productions
Producer: Frank Turner