By Wendy Anders

http://www.canneslionsarchive.com/winners/entry/781606/the-second-scoreboard

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) held annually in Cannes, France recently shortlisted J. Walter Thompson Costa Rica’s social issues communications project “Second Scoreboard.”

Developed in conjunction with the Costa Rican Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the Costa Rican Soccer Federation, and Costa Rica’s Teletica television station, the project aims to reduce domestic violence during soccer games by raising awareness of such violence using a real-time tracker placed below the game scoreboard.

The tracker records the number of domestic violence complaints received by 911 during the game in progress on a scoreboard visible to viewers and announcers. Announcers can incorporate commentary on the second scoreboard into their soccer commentary.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global seven-day event for those in creative communications, advertising and related fields. It is the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals, designers, digital innovators and marketers.

The festival is held each year in June and was founded in 1954 by cinema screen advertisers from the Screen Advertising World Association (Sawa) who were inspired by the Cannes Film Festival to create an event for makers of advertising films to also be recognised.

When Alejandra Mora, Costa Rica Women’s Affairs Minister, noticed that domestic violence complaints were spiking by as much as 690 percent during soccer games, she felt action needed to be taken.

The presence of the second scoreboard prompted a 40 percent initial reduction in domestic violence during games, with the idea being to reduce the number of domestic violence calls to zero some day.