Talking pants

Talking pants

The headlines about child sex abuse continue to shake our society, almost on a daily basis, it seems.

About one in twenty children fall victim to abuse, nine out of ten children are abused by someone they know and one in three don’t tell anyone at the time. While parents want to help their children stay safe, the NSPCC discovered the lack of confidence on how to explain to their child what is right and what is wrong, along with general embarrassment, would stop this vital parent-child communication.

This was underlined by a new online YouGov poll which showed half the parents of 5-17-year-olds have never spoken to their sons or daughters about the issue, and 43% of those who have said it was a difficult conversation. It was clear to the NSPCC that a strategy needed to be implemented that made a difficult subject a lot easier, to drive awareness in children and confidence in adults, whilst at the same time making sure that they were not seen as scare-mongering.

The answer

Talk PANTS was the answer. An easy to remember guide that helps children understand the key principles of the underwear rule. The idea was simple; prevent it before it even starts and parents the tools to talk through the issue through education and simple conversations that could make a big difference.

The campaign by Inferno is being aired on just under sixty radio stations and had no mainstream media spend, rather it formed partnerships with two of the largest child conscious organisations in the UK; Netmums and ChildLine.

The online parenting group have an article specifically on the Underwear Rule and supportive guidance for parents, and ChildLine are using their School Services to promote the campaign, which will visit every primary school in the UK to advise children on how to stay safe. The campaign also relied on word of mouth, via Twitter, the Facebook app and PR coverage.

The campaign is executed in a really engaging manner, broaching a subject that every parent dreads. The resulting campaign reflects the sensitivities of this subject but reassures parents through simple light hearted conversation and a set of rules that make the boundaries clear to the child and easy for the parent to communicate.

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