Top Spot of the Week: J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam Creates School for Justice

J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam has gone far beyond the traditional ad campaign for India’s burgeoning “Free a Girl Movement” with its work to create a School for Justice where the victims of child prostitution in India are taught law, enabling them to prosecute the criminals responsible.

The School for Justice opened this week in India. It is both a school and an education program for that offers girls the support, tuition and mentorship they need to reach university level.

Once at that level they will spend five years studying law to get to their Bachelor of Law – to ultimately lobby the government to become public prosecutors with the power and determination to challenge India’s legal system from within.

This launch film introduces the School for Justice for which the girls from the inaugural class of 2017 were presented during a press conference in Mumbai.

Bas Korsten, executive creative director at J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam, said, “We were approached to come up with an ad campaign to raise awareness about child prostitution in India for the Free a Girl Movement. When we found out that hardly any of the criminals responsible for these crimes are punished--in 2015 there were 1.2 million girls in forced prostitution vs. 55 legal cases that led to convictions--we quickly realized that a ‘normal’ ad campaign wasn’t going to cut it. We needed to go beyond the brief and think of a radical and more fundamental approach. We came up with the idea of setting up a School for Justice where the victims of child prostitution are taught law, thus empowering them to prosecute the criminals who once owned them. The School for Justice is a very real solution to a problem--as well as a communication idea to raise awareness. We are truly proud and honored to have built this concept from the ground up.”

Juliette Stevens of New Amsterdam Film Company directed the launch film. 

By Robert Goldrich 

Originally published here