How To... Break Out of Charity Advertising Tropes

We’ve spent the last few months developing a five year campaign platform for PLAN International, to help them move away from the standard charity messaging, and cement their position as key advocates of girl and young women activists around the world. 

In the year of #MeToo, it was the time now to showcase the amazing work that PLAN International does to support these incredible young women, fighting for everything from safety on public transport to education for pregnant girls. They support these activists all over the world, in their fight to be whoever they want to be, without fear. 

So a campaign platform, Girls Get Equal, was developed. But how to launch it to the world in film, on International Day of the Girl, in a way that was truly different to conventional charity messaging?  To start to break out of the 3^rd sector space and to move from familiar charity tropes to the world of advocacy.  

To be true to the aim of the campaign, we felt that these girl activists needed to be heard, and that their agency needed to be respected. They needed to tell the Girls Get Equal story in their own voice. Something more than just a talking-faces film, something that felt more akin to a powerful manifesto. We also wanted to show the diversity of young women and girl activists that PLAN support, as well as the truly global nature of the organisation. 

Herein lay the problem. We interviewed every activist over the phone or Whatsapp – with translators when necessary. We had a bank of their amazing words to write the script from, but there was no way of sanctioning an expensive, global shoot, even with the leanest of crew. Not for a global charity in the current climate, and where every cent needed to be maximised for the benefit of these incredible young women. We soon realised we’d have to approach the film in a completely unconventional way in order for it to be true to our vision. 

Working with PLAN International’s videographer and using her access to the 76 local offices, we identified and assessed incredible local filmmakers on the ground all over the world. We shortlisted the best, then set about writing a detailed brief, storyboard, shot-by-shot instructions and treatment for them. And we took on the role of directing, remotely.  

As a first step, we wrote a tight script and produced a mood film as a key asset to share with filmmakers. This carried the spirit and tempo of the campaign, and provided pretty decent visual style and a clear VO to work to. It also helped overcome the language barrier between ourselves and the filmmakers on the ground. 

We provided lists of synchronised shots and camera movements, stage direction, and briefing for cast. Filmmakers sent us a list of their equipment so we knew what was being shot on. Locations had to work around the activists themselves – and because they’re not professional actors and have varying degrees of comfort in front of the camera we had to make sure nothing felt too staged or required ‘acting’. 

As footage was coming in - sometimes taking weeks to travel from rural Senegal to London on a hard drive - we were constantly reviewing it and re-briefing the next filmmaker to capture any shots that had been missed. Some of the footage we got back was so much more incredible that what we had hoped for – the ridiculously stunning mountains and traditional costumes of Colombia were so well captured that they formed a key part of our global print as well as film. Our shots of girls with their skateboards in India were equally incredible. 

Design also played a big part in continuity – we had created a powerful visual symbol in the blue equals sign, that had been used across the integrated campaign in social and print. Painted on the face as a symbol of strength, it gave us a clear action for all the activists to do. 

It stood to reason that such an unconventional film needed an unconventional approach to editing and post too. We needed an inhouse editor who could sit alongside us to make sense of it –  we were editing for the most part without all the footage, using placeholder material until the real stuff came in. We handled the majority of post and animation inhouse too, to allow us maximum flexibility once we got the raw footage. 

Creating a film this way isn’t easy. It needed a huge amount of creativity, planning, and collaboration. We worked as one, with the local filmmakers as our hands and eyes on the ground. We listened to and respected the activists and their behaviours. And we created simple, repeatable movements and symbols tie it all together. The result is a beautiful integrated campaign, that starts to move PLAN International into the role of advocate in the conversation around young women’s and girls’ rights.