The Missing Poster Child
Child Focus
Issue 47 | July 2018
Agency
Wunderman Antwerp
Creative Team
CD: Pieter Staes, Manuel Ostyn Creation: Wout Geysen, Tijs Dejonckheere Design Direction: Sebastien Greffe Design: Nathalie Wlostowski
Production Team
DTP: Anja Van den Broeck, Jan-Bart Debruyne Producer: Caroline Van Ranst Film Production: Static Films Director: Jan Boon Editor: Hans Desmet Sound: Menno Van Riet
Other Credits
Client Contact: Dirk Depover Tiense Suiker Contact: Isabelle Roelandts, Dominique Demets Accounts: Seppe Dogge, Sander Van de Wiele Social: Chloé Van Elsen
Date
March 2018
Background
In almost every kitchen cupboard in Belgium, you will find the same familiar face. That of a little boy, printed on a pack of Cassonade Graeffe sugar. The boy became a real icon because the packaging always had a little child on it for the last 65 years. It’s so famous that Belgians don’t know it as Cassonade Graeffe, but as “Kinnekessuiker” or “Little kid sugar”. Until now…
Idea
For their 20th anniversary, Child Focus, the Belgian center for missing children, teamed up with Tiense Suiker and launched a special edition of the Cassonade packaging. 250 000 new packs were distributed in stores all over Belgium. But this time the little boy was missing, leaving nothing but an empty chair.
The packs were first secretly launched without any campaign. Soon the first overwhelmed reactions appeared on social media. A week later special direct mails were sent to the press and the campaign was launched on social media with the help of Edouard. A young man who had been missing himself a couple of years ago. The story was immediately picked up by all major newspapers and TV stations resulting in renewed attention for all missing children, spreading one message: Never give up hope.