#EndTheException

EP+Co is launching its first project with non-profit organization Worth Rises, a Juneteenth continuation of the federal #EndTheException campaign which is backed by 80 national organizations and led by Worth Rises. The pro bono creative advocates for the Abolition Amendment, a proposed amendment to end the exception clause in the 13th Amendment that allows slavery to be used as punishment and profit via incarceration.

The creative aims to confront the viewer head-on through the use of images of people who have been forced into labor against their will - comparing images of slavery in the South from 1822 to convict leasing and chain gangs in 1922 to prison work crews today in 2022, showing that very little is different. The hope is that by confronting this horrible truth through this powerful message, change can happen after over 300 years.

The campaign will launch across social, digital, print and OOH leading up to Juneteenth (June 19). The OOH billboards in Galveston, TX, and Savanna, GA, were chosen for their significance in the abolition of slavery: Juneteenth originated in Galveston as the day Union forces ordered the freedom of all enslaved people in Texas over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, while Savannah was the site of Special Field Order No.15, a broken promise that formerly enslaved people would receive "40 acres and a mule."

While more than 20 states are currently organizing to abolish slavery in their state constitutions, 83% of Americans aren't aware that the 13th Amendment legalizes slavery of incarcerated people in the U.S., an information gap EP+Co and Worth Rises are aiming to close through this campaign.