‘The Missing Faces’: Using AR Filters to Aid in Tracking Missing Persons
Utilizing AR filters, ‘The Missing Faces’ project empowers users to help locate missing individuals, fostering global community support
The way people take selfies in the digital age is constantly evolving. Taking photos with rainbow faces, changing faces, swapping faces—whatever you want to have fun with. But does changing the fun of altering our faces help in tracking down missing people?
In Istanbul, Turkey, with a population of about 20 million, one person disappears every 24 hours. Most of those who go missing are children. To aid in tracing missing individuals back to their families, the advertising agency TBWA Istanbul has collaborated with The Families of Missing Persons Association to launch The Missing Faces project. This project aims to help track missing people by utilizing the Face Filter feature, widely used by many users. The Missing Faces was developed using a tool called Spark AR for Facebook’s AR content creation. This tool can create 3D models to simulate the appearance and movements of the missing person’s face through virtual means.
The inaugural case for The Missing Faces is that of Ecrin, an 8-year-old missing girl. Users can simply access Facebook’s selfie feature, select the filter provided by The Families of Missing Persons Association – YAKAD, and the system will transform the user’s page to Ecrin’s page, displaying information about the girl. Users can then choose to share these images with their followers, causing them to quickly circulate within online communities. Despite having no allocated media budget, within a week of its release, this filter was utilized and shared by over 250,000 people, generating more than $1.3 million worth of free media coverage. Additionally, this tool can be utilized in all countries around the world that have access to Facebook, not limited to Turkey alone.
Assisting in tracking missing persons is not the sole responsibility of the police and the families of the missing. Instead, it’s a collaborative effort in which everyone can participate by providing tips and sharing information to reunite missing individuals with their families. The more people who are able to see the appearance of the missing person, the greater the chances of them being found. With a powerful tool like The Missing Faces, the odds of locating missing individuals are significantly increased when people come together to use and share it.
Credits
Client: The Families of Missing Persons Association • YAKAD
Advertising Agency: TBWA\Istanbul, Turkey
Executive Creative Director: Ilkay Gurpinar
Creative Director: Volkan Karakasoglu
Art Director: Melih Oguz
Copywriter: Mesut Yuksel
