Children of the World: Help me read this

Brief:
To get a largely indifferent city to participate in a literacy initiative, aimed at educating street children. Our client 'Children of the World' needed to generate both funds and volunteers for the programme to be successful.

Solution:
We observed that most of the street children who were illiterate, ironically spent their day selling magazines and books to commuters at traffic signals. The rest of the city spent a fair amount of time trying to navigate these same roads. We used the magazines these children were selling as the medium and urged people to help the kids read them; by placing tear-off, self-stamped envelopes on the jackets of the magazines with the message 'Help me read this'.

Results:
Within the first week itself, enquiries and donations started pouring in. Post the campaign period, Children of the World received over 300 sponsors for individual children, a number that far exceeded results in previous years. Our client also managed to set up makeshift schools across the city There were also many call-ins from people, many of whom are now volunteers for the programme.

Advertising Agency: Contract Advertising, New Delhi, India
Copywriter: Natasha M Martis
Creative Director / Art Director: Vineet Mahajan
Creative Director: Uddalak Gupta
Chief Creative Officer: Ravi Deshpande