Facebook, Instagram and Nelson Mandela Foundation drive awareness about gender-based violence

The initiative supports 'Is’thunzi Sabafazi (The Dignity of Women): Building a Caring Society' — a Foundation event with facilitator Redi Tlhabi and keynote speaker Oprah Winfrey. Taking place on 29 November at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto campus, the session will focus on gender-based violence in our society.

Tackling gender diversity

Playing out in Instagram Stories Ad carousels on the Foundation’s Instagram page, the creative draws inspiration from the winning team's Loeries 2017 Facebook Challenge Award. Sponsored by Facebook, it challenged participating students from across South Africa to create a campaign for the Foundation to tackle gender diversity.

The videos, created by Facebook's Creative Shop team, in partnership with an all-female-led production company Darling Films and director Gale Maimane helped craft these stories to be as close to reality as possible. Targeting viewers with relatable content about the plight of women who experience gender violence, after a few seconds in, the ad asks people to use a swipe to stop the harassment they're witnessing.

Hard-hitting message

Those who swipe up during the video go to the Nelson Mandela Foundation mobi site for a longer video with a hard-hitting message. Those who choose not to swipe up during the Instagram Story ad will receive another message and a request to swipe up and get involved.

The Instagram Story Ad will finally lead people to tune into the 'Is’thunzi Sabafazi (The Dignity of Women): Building a Caring Society' event on Facebook live, so those not in attendance can also take part and have their say on gender-based violence.

Commenting, Aviv Weil, head of Facebook Creative Shop Africa, said:

We are delighted to have this opportunity to combine Creative Shop together with the inspiration from bright, young African creatives. With the reach of our platform, we want to help inform and raise awareness about the crisis of violence against women in South Africa. We invite everyone to get involved and have their say.