Wisp, along with a coalition of the country's largest reproductive healthcare brands, wanted to get important abortion information in front of anti-choice believers to dispel the myth that banning abortion saves lives. The brand values of this coalition combined fought for safe and equitable abortion access to everyone in the US, which can be seen through their business and product offering, like mail order abortion medication. Ultimately the objective was to change minds while helping people in need access abortion medication.

Anti-Choice ads force people who don’t believe in a person’s right to choose, to make a life changing choice. We aimed to break through our internet bubbles, and provide a pro-choice message to people who may not often be exposed to one. YouTube targeting tools placed our pre-roll ad ahead of content typically aligned with the anti-abortion demographic. Those ads gave viewers a dilemma –– either watch something that might open their minds to a new, pro-choice way of thinking, or press the skip button — and automatically fund abortion medication to someone in need.

America is deeply divided on the issue of abortion care, and social media is a hotbed for these often toxic debates. We see people with different views as dismissable, but progress only happens when we take the time to truly listen and understand one another. So we wanted to find a way to speak outside of our proverbial bubbles and allow people to see a different viewpoint from their own: that abortion care is healthcare, and access to safe and legal abortions is what ultimately saves lives.

We targeted an anti-choice demographic and identified YouTube keywords based off of content that they were watching and aimed the pre-roll ads to run in front of similar videos. Of this we created 2 different sets of positive KPIs: Skipped videos adding to the donations, or viewed videos allowing access to people who wouldn't normally see this message.

Pre-roll ads were placed in front of anti-choice content, that served people a simple message:

“Skip this ad and we’ll provide free family planning medication to someone in need,” at this point the YouTube “Skip ad” button appears. Viewers are then forced to make the choice between skipping the ad and providing free abortion medication, or watching a pro-choice message. The film recontextualizes what it means to be pro-life, showing how access to abortion is what actually saves lives. The film went live on June 24th, 2023, exactly 1 year after Roe V Wade was overturned. Over a million people were served the dilemma, with 27% of them choosing to watch a message that they would normally never see.

Every outcome was a win. If the viewer skipped, an abortion was provided. If they watched until the end, they were exposed to an outside point of view. And, if a mind was changed, that was the ultimate win. Additionally, we were raising money for the Abortion Freedom Fund.

The film and dilemma was served to 1,098,000 anti-abortion believers.

282,000 of them watched the pro-choice film.

816,000 of them pressed the skip button resulting in 175 abortions funded.