Turkey has the highest rate of violence against women among European and OECD countries, with a rate of 38%. Sociologist Eva Lundgren emphasizes in her book "The Normalization of Violence" that the act of a woman saying "NO" is deemed unacceptable within the framework of the roles attributed to women and can lead to violence.

Despite awareness campaigns carried out by UN Women and other organizations, research indicates that the steps taken have been insufficient in terms of behavior change and raising awareness, as individuals have become desensitized to the messages on this issue.

In 2022, despite our limited budget, we needed to develop a communication strategy that would stand out among the reports and communications on violence against women, generate high engagement, and organically spread the message.

Our brief was to draw attention to intimate partner violence. We found out that one of the biggest reasons for it, was the answer no.

We changed the expression "She Said Yes," typically posted by men on social media as an announcement of their engagement, to the phrase "She Said No." We launched the campaign with Turkey’s biggest celebrity couple Afra Saraçoğlu and Mert Yazıcıoğlu.

In 2022, despite our limited budget, we needed to develop a communication strategy that would stand out among the reports and communications on violence against women, generate high engagement, and organically spread the message.

Starting from the idea that violence against women begins with saying "NO"; We celebrated the ability of women and women in general to say "NO" and set boundaries by changing the commonly shared expression "She Said Yes," typically posted by men on social media as an announcement of their engagement, to the phrase "She Said No."

We launched the campaign with Turkey’s biggest celebrity couple Afra Saraçoğlu and Mert Yazıcıoğlu, who have been in the spotlight for their successful careers and relationship. Two days before the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women, Mert shared a photo of his girlfriend’s ringless hand with the hashtag "She Said No". Everybody believed that it was a rejection response to a marriage proposal, curiosity was generated in the public, laying the foundation for the second phase of the campaign. She Said No has become a movement in Turkey as people, celebrities and companies said no to intimate partner violence. To make “she said no” the diverse voice of women, instead of designing one poster, we designed many. People, celebrities and companies chose their versions and shared them. Our hands in the posters became a movement as people raised hands and shared photos saying no to intimate partner violence.

Couples are now asked to say no to intimate partner violence before they say yes to each other. With 0 budget and 2 posts we reached 278M impressions, increased the followers by 6 times and created 1 conscious nation.