BITE Insight

Having just won a Silver Lion in the PR, Print&Publishing and Glass Lion categories, and nominated for six more, ActionAid’s #BrutalCut is an impactful message highlighting Female Genital Mutilation (FMG) in Africa. 

Three million girls in Africa aged 4-12 are at risk of FGM each year.This brutal tradition can cause severe bleeding, infertility and even death, and can have devastating psychological and social consequences. After FGM, girls are often taken out of school and forced into early marriage.

While awareness of FGM is increasing, there is low awareness of the horrifying effects it can have on girls’ lives. ActionAid believes awareness is the first step to ending it. The objective of their campaign #BrutalCut was to generate conversation and greater understanding among the UK population, with a target reach of 400,000. This would give ActionAid a credible voice for fundraising around the issue, and help to end FGM, for good.

ActionAid visited a school in Kenya to film a 10-second video clip. Without warning on 28 July, the message interrupted vlogger videos, content from digital publishers, celebrity posts, cinema ads, festival screens and outdoor digital ads to deliver the message: “This cut might be irritating, but some cuts are life-destroying”. The video linked to brutalcut.org where visitors could use a web app to edit a brutal cut into their own selfies and share on social media. 

Millions of people saw and talked about #BrutalCut, with a reach of over 152 million via social, digital and outdoor media. The campaign inspired 24 celebrities and high-profile vloggers along with major online publishers such as LadBible and Pretty 52 to cut their social content, share the campaign video or post support. Most importantly, the campaign provoked thousands of conversations (over 1,000 conversations on Twitter alone).