With this video, we brought to life the dangers of human trafficking through the medium of a music video. A medium that young people actively sought out and shared with friends. We did this in an authentic way – we researched the conditions young children worked in and reflected them in the video. We used branded entertainment to highlight a problem and to bring awareness to it.

This music video with a message is the fourth in a series for MTV EXIT Foundation. It was officially produced for Canadian rock band, Simple Plan and their track 'This Song Saved My Life'. It was focused primarily on a young Asian audience. The video premiered on www.mtvasia.com and was followed up through Simple Plan’s social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, their official website and YouTube channel. The music video was produced in partnership with the ‘Walk Free’ Anti-Slavery movement and had to pass the internal approval processes of government organisation partners USAID and AusAID. We had to adhere to the broadcast guidelines of MTV Networks International.

By using the medium of a music video for our message, we had an instant audience. Young people actively seek out music videos from their favourite bands to share with friends. Our audience was drawn to the video through Simple Plan’s broad fan base. The band promoted the video through social networks – including their 8.9 million strong followers on Facebook. In addition, the video was pushed through MTV Asia, MTV EXIT and Simple Plan’s official fan site. Simple Plan enjoy a strong loyal following among youth across Asia – which is our target market for this video.

MTV EXIT’s mission with this video is to raise awareness of the dangers of human trafficking by targeting those most at risk of being trafficked – the young. The video was released globally across all of MTV’s platforms in 168 countries, which reach more than half a billion households worldwide. Simple Plan’s strong loyal following among youth across Asia is also our target market for this video. Simple Plan’s social media channels pushed the video out to our audience. The band has 8.9 million followers on Facebook alone. Like previous MTV EXIT music videos, it was quickly shared by our audience through Twitter and Facebook and became a very successful tool for raising awareness of human trafficking. The video is currently active on the buzzworthy news section on mtv.com and the band continues to get behind the cause.