Real problems - Save the Children | Clapboard Ad Archive

Real Problems by Save the Children and McCann Lima stands as a forceful intervention in Peru’s public interest discourse in 2017, confronting the layered crisis of teenage pregnancy by reframing it as an urgent, everyday reality rather than an abstract social concern. Designed specifically to puncture the fog of misinformation and cultural stigma that surrounds the topic, the campaign delivers a direct challenge to conventional communications with a creative strategy rooted in what Clapboard’s taxonomy classifies as FORMAT#2—Show the Problem, achieving cut-through by foregrounding the life-altering consequences faced by adolescents and their families. The narrative device is unapologetically clear: the film immerses viewers in the lived experience of young Peruvians for whom pregnancy is not a headline, but a pivotal threat with social, economic, and familial cost. Eschewing symbolic gestures and testimonial tropes, the campaign instead centers the magnitude of the issue, leveraging the gravity of the problem as its own emotional architecture before introducing Proble + Reales—the educational platform crafted in partnership with Peru’s school system to supply accurate, accessible knowledge where misinformation thrives. McCann’s creative approach weaves educational messaging seamlessly into classroom subjects, embedding the solution within the environment most familiar and influential to the teenage audience, and signaling a tactical alignment with real-world contexts rather than isolated public service announcements. The single media asset—a focused, socially-aware film—uses documentary realism to elicit recognition, empathy, and self-reflection, prompting not just institutional stakeholders but young people themselves to reconsider the narratives that shape their futures. By centering its solution within systems already in place, the campaign bypasses the pitfall of well-meaning but culturally detached interventions, positioning Save the Children as both informed advocate and pragmatic operator in a challenging market category. The platform is not merely introduced but is narratively framed as the necessary response to an inefficacy revealed by the campaign itself, closing the gap between awareness and actionable change. The campaign earns 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. Real Problems signals a strategic progression in public service advertising, where evidence-driven insight and creative storytelling coalesce not just to generate empathy, but to engineer platforms for sustained, real-world impact.