The Autocomplete Truth
Gender Equality / UN Women
Issue 29 | December 2013
Agency
Memac Ogilvy Dubai
Creative Team
Creative Director Ramzi Moutran Associate Creative Director Sascha Kuntze Art Director Christopher Hunt Sabia Fatayri Copywriter Kareem Shuhaibar
Production Team
Retouching Moreira Estudio
Other Credits
Other Leonardo Borges
Date
April 2013
Background
In our highly advanced society, you would think gender equality is no longer a topic worth talking about. A quick Google search, however, would have proved you wrong.
Idea
Based on analysis of searches made in March 2013, the 'Autocomplete Truth Campaign' for UN women sparked a global discussion with simple but shock- ing facts and made the world realise that there was still a lot to be done.
Results
From most popular story of the week (Fast Company) it quickly became the most shared campaign of 2013 (Adweek), amplified by uncountable news sources (The Guardian, Time Magazine, Huffington Post, Times of India, Elle, CNN, msnbc, Pbs). It made men and women discuss the topic worldwide in news and talk shows on TV, on radio and on thousands of blogs.
Our Thoughts
It is not often that a print idea makes it into the pages of Directory. But this campaign is based on the genuine insight that people reveal themselves in what they search for online. It is also a print campaign that went viral.
As the Guardian wrote about how Google reveals our darkest thoughts, “It is a truth algorithmically acknowledged that a man needs to ejaculate and a woman needs to be put in her place.”
I just tried Googling “All women are...” and got: All women are pigs. All women are whores. Googling “All men are...”
I got “All men are created equal.”
I don’t think so.
The startling truth within this campaign is that what we search for reveals, disturbingly, what we think as a society.