MOVISTAR | THIS IS NOT A GAME | 2024
A Real Warning Disguised as a Game Walkthrough / Movistar "THIS IS NOT A GAME"
The person on the other side of the screen might not be a friend. A video that looks like a kids' game walkthrough but keeps telling a horrifying story the whole time.
The problem
In Mexico, cases of children being contacted by strangers through online games and falling victim to sexual exploitation had become a social problem. Voice chat and DMs within games had turned into a convenient route for predators to reach children.
The insight
Lectures like "this is dangerous, be careful" don't reach kids. So the idea was to use the exact format kids already watch all the time—game walkthrough videos—to show predators' tactics directly, in their own words. What makes this strong is that it chooses the words and the place that actually reach kids, not what adults think should work.
The idea
The video starts out looking like an ordinary game walkthrough. But what unfolds isn't a player's tips for beating the game—it's an explanation of the tactics real predators use to get close to children online. Borrowing the format of a gaming video, it exposes the danger hiding inside it.
What happened
It won Gold in the Film category's Entertainment Lions for Gaming at Cannes Lions 2024.
Afterthought
Turning the game walkthrough format—something kids trust completely—into a tool that betrays that trust is both deeply unsettling and absolutely right. This is a campaign that proved, by putting itself on the line, that no warning gets through unless it speaks in a language kids actually listen to.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2024
