“Ping”: UN Women gives fear a “sound” in new regional campaign against digital violence
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Originally published on UN Women Americas and the Caribbean
- As part of the 16 Days of Activism, UN Women launches “PING,” an audiovisual piece that uses the sound of mobile notifications to expose the distress victims experience.
- The initiative is complemented by the graphic campaign “Button,” which highlights the act of “forwarding” as a trigger of digital violence affecting 3 out of 5 women.
Violence against women and girls has found new ways to perpetuate itself in digital spaces. To confront this growing reality, UN Women, in partnership with the creative agency Leo Burnett, is launching a high-impact regional campaign aimed at stopping the non-consensual sharing of intimate content.
Under the umbrella of the United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE campaign, the initiative centers on two creative pieces that directly call on digital users to take responsibility:
“PING”: The Sound of Distress
The core piece is a video portraying the emotional journey of a teenage girl—from receiving the first message to reaching a state of total anguish. The narrative is built around an everyday element: the sound of a mobile phone notification.
What for most people is a routine alert becomes a psychological trigger of terror and anxiety for victims of digital violence.
“BUTTON”: Breaking the Chain
To accompany the audiovisual piece, a social media strategy titled “Button” is being launched. Through visual posters, the campaign graphically uses the “forward” icon (the characteristic arrows of messaging apps) to build powerful messages.
Among the key messages that will flood social media are headlines such as: “3 out of 5 women are victims of this button.”
The campaign seeks to raise awareness about the many forms digital violence can take, emphasizing that actions such as harassing, threatening, or sharing intimate content without consent also constitute gender-based violence.
A Call for Collective Action
UN Women urges media outlets, digital platforms, and the public at large not to be complicit. The strategy calls for breaking the chain of violence under the premise that there is #NoExcuse.
The campaign will be featured across all UN Women digital platforms in Latin America and the Caribbean.
#EsViolenciaDigital #16Days #NoExcuse