In Brazil, violence against women is a national problem, but the hearing-impaired and deaf women victims have specific needs.

With this in mind, our goal was to find a communication channel that had national coverage and was capable of speaking to a specific audience. With 88% coverage and almost 100% penetration, television had a media format that allowed us to communicate directly with them: the age rating warning.

What was the problem then? It was only a format required by law. That's why we decided to transform it into a an advertising format for the first time ever.

A survey conducted by UN Women shows that, even today, 95% of women and 81% of men interviewed agree with the affirmation that machismo is still dominant in Brazil.

Even though the Brazilian government had already recognized, during the 1940’s, that domestic violence was a problem, it only began to take action in 1985, with the creation of the first unit of the Delegacia da Mulher (Women’s Precinct) in the state of São Paulo and later, with the publication of the Federal Law for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Against Women in 2006, known as the “Lei Maria da Penha” (a name given in homage to a victim who became a paraplegic after an assault.)

Before the "Voice of Silence" project, there wasn't any public initiative to help hearing-impaired and deaf women, who suffer violence and have communication problems to report it. With our idea we could support victims through an exclusive channel in Brazillian Sign Language (LIBRAS).

Every hour in Brazil a person with a disability reports a case of domestic violence.

According to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, the number of aggressions is considerably higher because the lack of accessibility make reporting even more difficult leaving the victims more vulnerable. Especially for hearing impaired and deaf women.

Hearing impairment and deafness is not just about the condition of not hearing. It's also about not being heard in a world that is not ready to communicate with you.

Many hearing-impaired and deaf women are unable to communicate and the incident is recorded as a report of an incapable person. To promote an exclusive reporting channel in sign language (LIBRAS) for these victims, we hacked the only space in Brazil on mass media where it's possible to communicate directly with them: the TV age rating warning.

In Brazil, all television shows are required by law to show an opening with a Brazilian Sign Language interpreter warning about inappropriate content on the show (Law 8.069/1990).

For the first time ever we transformed the age rating warning into an advertising format with several hidden messages, such as: “Hey, you... yeah, you... watching me. You are no longer alone in case of violence: report it now in sign language (LIBRAS) at falamulher.ong.br”.

How these hidden TV messages helped deaf victims report domestic abuse: in a discreet way, without attracting the attention of the attackers, the idea encouraged these victims to look for help through our exclusive channel in sign language (LIBRAS). This way, bringing more than an alert: an online platform fully adapted to ensure clear and efficient communication when the hearing-impaired and deaf victims recording attacks.

In Brazil, television is the only communication channel with 88% coverage and almost 100% penetration. As a result, virtually the entire population is impacted by the broadcasters’ programming, including hearing-impaired and deaf women who suffer domestic violence.

Violence against women is a national problem, but the victims have specific needs. That's why we needed a media format that had national coverage and was capable of speaking to a specific audience. For this, we picked the only space on TV where it is possible to communicate directly with hearing-impaired and deaf women: the age rating warning.

In our country, all television shows are required by law to show an opening with a Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS) Interpreter warning about inappropriate content on the show. In this direct marketing idea that happens on television, we took the hearing-impaired and deaf victims of domestic to an exclusive reporting channel.

In Brazil, NGOs don’t have enough financial resources so the communication budget isn't a priority. The challenge was to create an idea with low investment and high reverberation potential.

With only US$1,600 spent with the Sign Language interpreter, we used the recording structure of the channel's mandatory age rated warning to record our hidden messages to help victims report domestic violence.

The Voice of Silence is not an outreach idea, it’s more of a direct marketing idea that happens on television. In this case, we had SBT, one of the biggest broadcasters in Brazil, by our side.

From 9/24/2023 until now, we are on air in 14 programs a day, 7 days a week, the action only impacts a specific audience: hearing-impaired and deaf women. Currently, the project is part of SBT's fixed programming schedule, however, we have made the age rating warning format available for other broadcasters to use.

The campaign is on air every day, 24/7, and is already part of the broadcaster's definitive schedule, which has also made all the campaign materials available so that the initiative could be implemented by other TV channels.

Voice of Silence project had an amazing repercussion all over Brazil. Check below a few numbers:

After the campaign, the number of violence reports increased by 4 times.

More than 3.300 media inserts in mass communication channels with zero investment.

More than 112 million dollar’s worth of "hacked" earned media.

Besides all of that, the campaign featured the most important mass media channels in Brazil. For example: “An innovative campaign that reduced the difficulty in reporting violence for deaf women.” Mônica Bergamo – Folha de S.Paulo.

Every hour in Brazil a person with a disability reports a case of domestic violence. According to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, the number of aggressions is considerably higher. Especially for hearing impaired and deaf women.

That means one thing: violence against women is a national problem, but the victims have specific needs. That's why we needed a media format that had national coverage and - at the same time - was capable of speaking to a specific audience.

For this, we picked the only space on TV where it is possible to communicate directly with hearing-impaired and deaf women: the age rating warning. In our country, all television shows are required by law to show an opening with a Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS) Interpreter warning about inappropriate content on the show. In this direct marketing idea, we took the hearing-impaired and deaf victims to an exclusive reporting channel.