“I just wish programs like this would have existed when I was a teenager.” —juror Eric Karjaluoto
“Meaningful firsts matter, and this was one. It used technology in a new and remarkable way, solved a problem for people, and had impact.” —juror Winston Binch
Overview: Every year, millions of teens in the United States suffer from bullying they can’t escape, in schools and across social networks. Bullying, which starts with fear and results in fear, has presented itself as an important issue for Secret, particularly because the impact of bullying can be the most severe for girls just at the age when they start using deodorant. In an attempt to change the culture within schools, Leo Burnett Chicago created the first-ever nationwide, live-streaming, real-time assembly, The Biggest. Assembly. Ever.
• The anti-bullying assembly brought together thousands of students across the country during October 2014, National Bullying Prevention Month
• Secret’s social expressions (mentions, engagement and participation through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube) were up 159 percent from October 2012.
• The assembly was a key part of Secret’s Mean Stinks campaign.
Comments by Leo Burnett Chicago:
What were the project’s core features? “The event was hosted at a ‘hero school’ that had already taken impressive measures to create a culture of niceness. An additional eight satellite schools were selected to be featured in the live-streaming event, viewed nationwide through our partnership with Google Hangouts. We recruited host Alexis Jones, Gen Y expert, female empowerment speaker and author of I Am That Girl, to kick off the event with bullying stories and truths. We also teamed up with Zendaya, a celebrity from Disney’s Shake It Up, who contributed her own bullying stories. Both used their personal social networks to broadcast their participation.”
