TACKLING ILLITERACY WITH THE ALPHABET, CHALLENGES FACING HUMANITY

The A to Z collection highlights the plight faced by people struggling to break out of illiteracy, with a focus on those who have a particular interest in social issues and those who are highly active and influential in social media.
A complementary social media strategy tells the story of each letter as well as experiences of those affected by illiteracy. This will launch across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr. Each letter has a dedicated Instagram account featuring content on each topic, allowing users to discover each letter of the ‘Alphabet of Illiteracy’ natively on the platform. Outreach will engage key social influencers that include people close to literacy and sustainable development and a number of high profile partners, who will add their voice to the campaign.


A to Z is for AIDS, Bloodshed, Child brides, Drug abuse, Ebola, Female Genital mutilation, Gender inequality, Homeless, Infant mortality, Jail, Kalashnikov, Life expectancy, Malnutrition, No childhood, Overdose, Poverty, Quitting school, Radicalisation, STDS, Trillion dollars, Undermined, Voiceless, World hunger, XXX, Young offenders, and Zero options.

“There are currently 757 million people in the world who cannot read or write. That’s more than the entire population of Africa”,  It brings together organisations, spanning from UNESCO to Microsoft to the National Literacy Trust, who work on the ground to tackle the myriad issues that contribute to the millions of people being denied this basic human right. We wanted to clash the emotions people remember from learning their ABC with some of the world’s gravest issues. The tragic fact is that being unable to read and write is not about being unable to enjoy a good book, illiteracy is the root cause of many of the biggest challenges facing humanity.


This is the type of brief that advertising agencies crave. It’s a chance to use our marketing and communications skills to do good in the world. Global illiteracy is a highly complex problem deeply bound up in political, economic and cultural issues, but the idea for the campaign comes from the heart of the problem itself, twenty six little letters that can help solve some of the world’s biggest problems. By clashing the innocence of the ABC and sculptures with some of worst problems facing humanity we hope to evoke conflicting emotions. The resulting campaign is a poignant and memorable body of work that we hope will make a meaningful impact in tackling illiteracy”.