Met Police - Choose a different ending
How do you get violent teens to take control over their destiny?
CANNES LIONS 2010 TITANIUM INTEGRATED
Background: Teenage stabbings were a growing epidemic in London, so the MET Police approached us to create communications that might plant a seed of doubt in young people's minds about the benefits of carrying a knife for protection. Most of the police communications relied on using a 60s commercial to play out the dangers of a life of crime ending in either prison or death. However, for a teen growing up on a London estate trying to stay respected and safe, these outcomes aren't shocking or new news. Tragicially, many already accepted this as their destiny anyway. We needed a new approach.
Insight: Teenage brains are not yet fully developed. They don't yet have the frontal cortex that allows us to learn from past mistakes or project ourselves into the future. In fact, instead they are governed by the hormonal impulses of the lymbic system that only cares about fighting, fleeing, feeding and well.... fucking. This is even more true for young people who grow up in stressful environments.
The strategic idea: If we spoke about the long term impact of huge irreversable choices, we would lose them. Instead, we had to break down the micro-decisions that they make everyday to show them that they are constantly writing their future and that with consciousness, they can choose a different ending.
The creative idea: We pioneered the use of YouTube as a "choose your own adventure" tool, allowing teens to pick what action they wanted to take at the end of each clip. This earned us the first ever Grand Prix for Good at Cannes in 2010.