We decided to demonstrate how helpless children are in front of an angry adult. And created an interactive experience for Brazilian adults.

We took two body sparring bags (a free-punching icon) and made it into the shape of scared children. Two items were crafted: a six years-old boy and an eight years old girl. The “Sparring Children” were made to become an iconic symbol of how outrageous childhood violence is.

The “Sparring Children” are now touring all around the country to spread its anti-violence message. But first we used them to make an experiment on adults to make them feel as aggressors.

We secretly placed it in a gym, among other sparring bags, during a fight-training day. So adults would face them when they were right in an intense moment. The whole experience was recorded so the video could help promoting our message.

One year ago, the two “Sparring Children” were 3-D designed by a partner studio. Then we called a specialist artist of Brazilian Carnival, who took 6 months to conceive and build the models. Both items were made with the same specifications of regular body sparring bags.

The “siblings” were then taken to Delfim Gym, Rio de Janeiro’s largest fight club, situated in Tijuca. For two months, both items were on display at the academy. First hidden in the middle of training sessions, where they impacted more than 500 adult students. Later, they were taken to the reception and many other gyms around the city.

And with the upcoming 18th of May, National’s “Children and Adolescence Protection Day, the “Sparring Children” already have a large agenda already scheduled on TV channels and other media.

After the experiment, 95% of the participants declared to have being positively impacted by our message. Positive response to the campaign reached an 85% rate of approval among Brazilian adults.

Rede Globo, Brazil’s largest media company, embraced the campaign and took the “Sparring Children” to many appearances on its vehicles. Special stories and debates with specialists reached an estimated value of 35kU$ in spontaneous media.

One week after the campaign was aired, Calls for #110 (Police’s complaint telephone number for childhood victims) had a raise of 32%. Other 115 reports were made on Police Stations around the state during the first week, twice the number received in the previous month.