UNICEF 'Access Denied' for World Toilet Day

On World Toilet Day, Tribal Worldwide will launch a campaign for UNICEF with the goal of informing a new audience about the lack of access to toilets worldwide. Called “Access Denied,” the campaign will urge changes in both behavior and policy on issues ranging from enhancing water management to ending open-air defecation. The campaign includes a series of posters, a dedicated website (http://www.toilettrek.org), and a game available on desktop and mobile that dramatizes the dire situations faced by those who are forced to defecate in the open.

 

 
Globally, two and a half billion people do not use improved sanitation facilities and 15 percent of the global population – equivalent to one billion people – still defecate in the open. An astonishing 1,600 children die per day of diarrhea, which is largely preventable through improved sanitation and good hygiene.
 

To showcase the day-to-day struggle that people living without access to a safe, clean toilet experience, Tribal Worldwide’s New York office developed a series of visually unique and dramatic posters for “Access Denied” which will be translated and displayed across the world. Each poster highlights a different consequence stemming from a lack of safe, clean toilets via illustration. These risks include the indignity of open defecation, the risk of rape for women, and disease such as diarrhea that could ultimately lead to death. The messaging and visuals of the posters were also designed to serve as social media status updates and spark conversation with the hashtag #Toilets4All.

 

 
Another element of “Access Denied” is “Toilet Trek,” a retro, 8-bit style desktop game whose graphics and animation recall video games of the 1980s. “Toilet Trek” is also available on mobile devices (iPhone 4 and 5s only; Android coming soon). Throughout the game, players try to overcome hazards that represent the health, safety and dignity concerns people face every day when trying to find a place to relieve themselves.

 

 

Richard Guest, US President of Tribal Worldwide, commented, “Most people in the developed world don’t realize the importance of this issue and take access to a toilet for granted. UNICEF and World Toilet Day are setting out to change that. The ‘Access Denied’ campaign helps bring awareness to UNICEF’s valiant efforts to improve global sanitation, and does it in a creative way that feels new coming from UNICEF.  It is also a great example of Tribal’s digitally-centric approach to creating campaigns and programs for its clients.”
 

To learn more about World Toilet Day or play “Toilet Trek,” visit http://toilettrek.org/.

 

Credits

Executive Creative Director:     Kinney Edwards
Creative Director: Jen Stocksmith
Creative Director: Katie Degentesh
Designer: Nick Dunlap
Copywriter: Brent Goldman
Director, User Experience Strategy:  Peter Gallo
Associate Technology Director: Rocky Romano
Business Director: Heather Stuckey
Engagement Supervisor: Meera Deepak
Engagement Coordinator:  Kari Halverson
Head of Project Management and Production:  Sunshine Yoon
Head of Technology: Spiro Misfud
Integrated Producer: Shannon Strange
Sound Design: Drew Gardner