The Not-So-Beautiful Game



Brief:
Highlight that domestic violence still happens.

Solution
Hijack the World Cup.

Domestic violence is still a very real threat to men and women everywhere. It spikes around football matches with a 38% increase if England loses, 23% if they win and 11% the next day, win or lose.   


We wanted to bring these stats to life in a simple way that captured the brutal nature of domestic violence itself.


This was done by leveraging the key visual device that is the language of the World Cup: a nation’s flag. We reimagined these flags in a way that was truly shocking, and subsequently timed the release of each new flag to correspond with the kick-off of select matches. 

The campaign was credited as London’s “Most Talked About World Cup Campaign” with an organic online reach of over 5 million people on Facebook alone, alongside several outdoor and print spots.

In the end, it was even adopted by England’s National Health Service and the London Metropolitain Police as an official World Cup announcement.    



*In the 2021 EUFA Cup finals the campaign was reignited as England pushed closer to the finals.

It had such a successful re-run that the stat on it’s own ‘38% increase if England looses’ began appearing everywhere without the work attatched, as if it was something everyone just knew.

Today, you can’t separate UK football culture from that 38% stat.    



Awards and Honours: 
2019 - Cannes Lion, gold, Entertainment in Sport
2019 - Cannes Lion, shortlist, PR
2019 - Cannes Lion, shortlist, Glass Lion
2019 - WPPED Cream Awards, Highly Commended.
2018 - Campaign UK’s Top 10 of 2018
2018 - Epica Awards, gold
2018 - Kinsale Shark Awards, bronze

2018 - Featured in Campaign
2018 - Featured in The Drum
2018 - Ad Age editors pick
2018 - Lurzer’s Archive, featured





Role. . . . Creative
Agency. . . .  J. Walter Thompson, London

Field. . . . Print & Online

Published. . . . July 2018

















During England’s phenominal UEFA 2021 season the campaign was re-ignited by a Linkedin Post from the head of the NHS. This saw the campaign go viral again as well as receive a re-run in digital out of home in the lead up to England’s final matches. It even made it’s way on to Australian national news sites. Still as relevant as ever, 3 years after its initial launch. 

What’s even cooler is that the stat ‘a 38% increase in domestic violence if England looses’ began appearing around the place on its own. Today that stat is inseperable from UK football culture. 

















2017 — Frogtown, Los Angeles