The Search Box That Silenced Women / UN WOMEN "THE AUTOCOMPLETE TRUTH"

The problem

Founded in 2010, UN Women was still a UN agency with little name recognition or budget. The world had largely convinced itself that gender equality was already a solved problem, long settled. That very complacency was the real enemy.

The insight

While doing research, the team at Memac Ogilvy tried typing "Women cannot..." into Google, just to see what would happen. Autocomplete kept suggesting one discriminatory phrase after another. This wasn't individual prejudice—it was the collective unconscious of people all over the world, searching 6 billion times a day.

The idea

Four visuals, each showing the face of a woman of a different race with a search box placed over her mouth like a gag. "Women should stay at home." "Women should be slaves." The predictive text itself became a tool to silence women. A video released later traces women's progress, from winning the right to vote to competing in the Olympics, before asking "So what about now?"—and confronting viewers with these search results. The drop from hope to reality is what makes it hit so hard.

What happened

Media outlets around the world, from the BBC to CNN to the Guardian, covered the campaign, and it won multiple Lions at Cannes Lions, including the Titanium Lion. Similar campaigns followed in its wake, and the approach spread to expose prejudice against other minority groups as well.

Afterthought

An everyday tool turned out to be a mirror reflecting discrimination back at us. Four photos and one video laid that truth bare. For everyone who couldn't speak up, the search box screamed on their behalf.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2014

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