01 Task
Countless disadvantages of buying counterfeit goods
Trade in counterfeit goods has many harmful consequences for society. Not only does it affect businesses, which lose direct sales of almost €7 billion a year, but it also has consequences for the people who produce the goods and can have harmful health consequences for those who buy and use them.
Moreover, trade in counterfeit goods has been proven to be linked to serious and organised crime such as drug trafficking, illegal arms possession, money laundering, tax evasion and trafficking in human beings.
The Patent and Trademark Office wanted a campaign targeting young people aged 18-24 to highlight the disadvantages of buying counterfeit goods and to encourage people to choose genuine goods over counterfeits. The campaign was to be launched on World Anti-Counterfeiting Day 2022.
02 Solution
A personification of counterfeit goods
The thing about counterfeit goods is that although they often look like the real thing, sound like the real thing or smell like the real thing, that doesn't always mean they are the real thing. Often you can feel something wrong about them.
We chose to focus on just this through the campaign slogan "Drop the copies, choose real".
We produced a film in which we selected three of the main messages (suspicious prices, harmful chemistry and support for organised crime). The main character in the film was influencer and comedian Martin Johannes Larsen, who played the lead role of a copycat. Martin Johannes Larsen had to play opposite himself as the personification of a counterfeiter to show how wrong it can go and why you should choose the real thing.
In addition to the video, we developed informative and humorous social media posts to reach the target audience on the platforms where they are present. Therefore, the campaign ran on Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
The film is produced by ISAAC Productions.
