During 2020, men who buy sex have been under the microscope in Sweden, as a famous TV host was convicted for buying sex, and several Swedish brothels were raided by the police. But despite the great attention, we have missed the voices of the exploited women.

Talita – a non-profit organization that helps women out of prostitution, pornography and human trafficking for sexual purposes – wanted to offer a megaphone for those without a voice, to create a greater understanding of the real consequences of trafficking for sexual purposes.

We launched 0939-1915, a new kind of call girl service where women who have been exploited in the sex trade can make their voices heard.

The phone number, which at first seems like a regular call girl-service, lets the caller choose one of several presented names. But every name offers a recording of a woman who shares some of her experiences of living in prostitution. Talitas call girl-service highlights the traumas, coercion, and vulnerability that line the most common path to prostitution. All stories come from women who themselves have participated in Talita's program and now want to make their voices heard. A call costs 1 euro/minute, and all money goes in full to Talita's daily work.

Our insight was that for all the debate around prostitution, one voice was never heard: the prostitutes themselves. And that for all the sex ads and services that advertise ”real” girls, the last thing many sex buyers are interested in hearing is the real, heart-rending personal stories of actual prostitutes. Thus our key message - ”Hear the real stories of women who have been abused in the sex trade.”

We gathered data through in-depth interviews with six women, and condensed their stories to tell their journey into sex work, and the marks the experience had left on them. We let women who had been prostitutes tell their own stories, and influence our target group - all adults in society - to donate to Talita’s work.

The assets were distributed as a phone line, promoted through films, print and PR, sparking global and local attention.

Talita has a great following and engagement on its social media channels. Therefore, we crafted the campaign to live in the social space. On the first day of the campaign, we posted a series of snippets from the women’s stories on Talitas's Instagram. All posts encouraged viewers to listen to the whole story by calling our phone number. We prompted people to spread the number, and our social media post went viral.

On the day of the launch and three weeks forward, our campaign could be seen on 2000 digital Clear Channel billboards all across Sweden and in print ads in some of Sweden's biggest newspapers. To finish the campaign up, we had a sketchy pickup truck driving around Stockholm, encoring people to call our number.

By giving the term call girls an entirely new meaning, we created this year's most talked-about Swedish advertising campaign. Talita's new payment number received huge coverage in both social and traditional media. Already on the first day, Talita's Instagram posts had been shared thousands of times. The great commitment made famous Swedes – such as Zara Larsson – spread the number unpaid in Instagram stories and their feeds. Call Girls spread from social media to traditional and was covered by The Independent, British Metro, Yahoo, Adweek, Muse by Clio, Elle, and all major Swedish news outlets.

Donations, in 2020, increased by as much as SEK 2 million (£166 188) compared with previous years – and this at a time when the need for crisis support has been unusually large.