Carat and TAG won Best Pro-Bono Campaign at the B&T Awards for their urgent and moving ‘A Happier 10th Birthday ‘ campaign for Raise The Age NSW.
The campaign’s premise was that when a child blows out 10 candles on a birthday cake, the world should be opening up to them. Due to NSW’s age of criminal responsibility being just 10 years old, for some children, the world can turn very bleak. At such a young age, a child can be arrested, charged, strip-searched, hauled before a court and locked in a prison cell.
Carat and TAG’s campaign opens with an image everyone can relate to—the complete innocence of a child’s birthday. But the campaign takes a confronting turn, showing what turning 10 can mean for some children in NSW.
See what creative director Adam Ibrahim and MD ANZ Elena Fullerton, behind the campaign, had to say below.
“Children in lockup is never OK–it’s absolutely not acceptable. When Raise the Age came to us, it was obvious that we wanted to help,” Ibrahim said.
“Working with Emily–her passion, her conviction, and the stories that she told us–brought us on the journey and really helped paint a picture of what we needed to do,” Fullerton said.
Emily Mayo was the campaign manager for the project.
With a budget of zero dollars, the campaign for Raise The Age NSW set out to do more than just create awareness–the agencies wanted to start a conversation in a political environment that had at best avoided the evidence for decades.
Awareness in NSW rose by 45 per cent, and the understanding of the issue doubled. That’s despite the NSW Government refusing to run the ad on public transport, labelling it “too political”.
The B&T Awards champions work made for incredibly important initiatives. Check out the other winners here!
