Pakistan has one of the worst records of child marriages in the world. Almost a quarter of all Pakistani women in the last ten years have been married before the age of 18, some even at the age of 6. Pregnancies resulting from early marriages cause severe health complications - girls under 18 years are twice as likely to die in childbirth, while infants born to mothers under 16 have a 60% chance of death.

Despite this, bills to raise the legal marriage age to 18 have been rejected previously by the government on religious grounds.

Our objectives were to:

- Create a stir around the issue that would reach parliamentary figures, and ultimately influence lawmakers to raise the minimum marriage age.

- Raise awareness and change people’s mindset regarding this issue so they actually educate their daughters rather than getting them married.

The strategic insight to the creative idea came from the typical Pakistani bride's elaborate wedding outfit. Every year, the Pakistani bridal-wear industry hosts large events which are attended by celebrities and have extensive media coverage. One could say that the bridal gown is treated itself as a uniform for a bride.

We took this audience insight and connected it to the other uniform a girl wears: to her school. By merging the two, we formed a new strategic way into fighting early marriages - through the argument of education: the Bridal Uniform was thus created by fusing wedding gown embroidery with a schoolgirl's uniform.

The World Bank Report states that one of the best ways to end child marriage is to keep girls in school. The longer a girl stays in school, the less likely she is to be married before the age of 18 and have children during her teenage years. Our strategy was to focus on the girl student and highlight the loss of education through early marriages.

As a media and PR strategy, by disrupting a platform like the Bridal Couture Week, where brides are meant to be celebrated, we were able to piggyback on the media wave that followed the event, completely hijacking the conversation around it.

We collaborated with the country's leading bridal-wear designer Ali Xeeshan to create The Bridal Uniform: Ali meticulously researched bridal embroidery patterns to find the right balance between a school uniform and a bride's gown. Golden embroidery was hand sown into a typical government school uniform.

We then hijacked the platform of the country’s biggest bridal fashion show: The Bridal Couture Show. As the showstopper of the night, amidst bejeweled adult brides in elaborate gowns, and with the nation's top fashion bloggers recording, out walked on the ramp a little girl wearing a schoolgirl's uniform embellished with beautiful traditional bridal motifs, shocking audiences both live and watching on broadcast.

The stunt led to an online petition and was followed by on ground educational activations.