43% of UK secondary or high school children have been exposed to online abuse and one in four have suffered repeated incidents. But no one is talking about it. It is a common form of bullying for this age group, especially among young women, and can lead to depression, low self-esteem, low self-confidence, self-harming, social isolation and, in the worst cases, suicide. Brief was to shine a light on some of these issues, raising awareness for Cybersmile, and the support that they offer.

“We wanted to unearth and expose the pain caused by cyberbullying in an environment where it naturally breeds. What better place to do this than the Instagram platform? By working with Chessie King, a body-positive influencer, we wanted to create a movement that sparked conversation, outrage, and a united rallying cry. We tried to hold up a mirror to trolling; while the trolling was ugly, the response was beautiful. We turned the negative into a positive, creating a groundswell of support.

Cyberbullying charity The Cybersmile Foundation put internet trolling in the spotlight in a ground-breaking way. Over 24 hours, we manipulated influencer Chessie King’s appearance in response to real negative comments in a live Instagram story. She became uglier in response to each comment, culminating in a shockingly distorted final image. Ultimately, we showed the internet that ‘Trolling is ugly.’

The campaign started with a post on Chessie’s Instagram about body confidence. The post got over 150,000 views in the first 12 hours. We then co-created content with Chessie throughout the following day, in response to genuine negative comments from online trolls. This content was posted as a series of photos and videos to Chessie’s Instagram Story. With each post, Chessie became more and more distorted, eventually appearing in an unhuman-like form: an amalgamation of the Insta-hater’s comments. On 12th April, it was revealed that Chessie’s alien-like transformation was, in fact, a collaboration between The Cybersmile Foundation and us, with people being directed to their website for help and advice. News of our campaign spread like wildfire, hitting the headlines online and offline in a matter of hours. Through hashtag strategy and management, this combined voice is now in every social channel surrounding the Cybersmile platform. And it’s still growing.”

Cybersmile and Chessie King Body Positivity Campaign

Credits
Advertising Agency: Adam&EveDDB, UK
Production Company: FreeFolk
Post Production Company: cain&abel
Design Company: King Henry
Group Chief Creative Officer: Ben
Chief Creative Officer: Richard Brim
Creative Directors: Rasmus Smith Bech, Jonas Roth
Creative Teams: Lily Scarlett Hurst, William Blackburn
Agency producer: Suzy MacGregor
Planner: Martin Beverley
Managing Partner: Miranda Hipwell
Account Director: Olivia Chittenden
Account Manager: Rosie Snowball
PR Manager: Hope Abel
Post Production: Charles Gillet

Tags:
Digital, United Kingdom, Public Interest, NGO, Cybersmile, DDB, Awareness Campaign, Cyberbullying, The Cybersmile Foundation