Invisible Petitions
We Will Stop Femicide Platform
Overview
In March 2021, Turkey withdrew from the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention, which prevents women from domestic violence. This decision was met with protests in Turkey, where violence against women was still a major concern. To make this issue visible, we made it impossible to ignore.
The Challenge
In 2020 alone, 409 women were killed in Turkey due to cases of domestic violence. Many of these women had written petitions to the State Prosecution Office asking for protection. Their pleas were ignored by authorities.
TBWA and Turkish organization We Will Stop Femicide knew this was much more than a visibility problem. The solution had to make it impossible for the authorities and those who are unaware of the severity of the problem to look the other way.
The Solution
A real petition of a woman who asked for protection was enlarged to the size of an apartment building, with the headline taken from her own words: “I don’t want to die.” placed in prominent out of home locations.
The billboard immediately went viral, gaining the attention of millions of people including celebrities, journalists, and most importantly the authorities. When the billboard was forcibly taken down after only 12 hours, the public created their own media to show their support in the form of t-shirts, artwork, and even a filter that placed the petition on every building.
The mass media attention prompted a response from an opposition municipality, who offered to hang the document for free, which then led many others across Turkey to join the movement.
The Results
