SITUATION Atlanta harbored a horrifying truth: it was the #1 city in the U.S. for sex trafficking, including minors. Yet the issue remained invisible to the public, diluted by euphemisms in the media, and misunderstood by those with the power to intervene. The city needed more than awareness—it needed to be shaken awake. TASK Launch a zero-media-budget campaign that would ignite awareness, incite outrage, and drive civic and community engagement. The objective wasn’t to inform—it was to demand action. ACTION I led the development of Truth in Trafficking, a provocative PSA campaign designed to strip away denial and deliver an emotional gut punch that could not be ignored. •. Creative Strategy: Crafted a campaign that refused to soften the reality. Every visual, every word was calibrated to provoke empathy and outrage—not pity. •. Visual Concept: Commissioned original visual artwork from a Swedish dollmaker. The hollow-eyed, damaged dolls served as haunting stand-ins for children robbed of innocence and agency. •. Copywriting: Wrote arresting, unsanitized headlines that directly confronted complicity, indifference, and societal blind spots. •. Media and Distribution: Helped secured 25+ of Atlanta’s highest-visibility billboard placements and full transit saturation on MARTA—all through donated inventory. •. Extended campaign across donated TV, radio, and print channels. •. Directed and oversaw campaign rollout across all media assets. •. Community Activation: Personally presented the campaign to civic leaders, high-profile influencers, and celebrities to galvanize their participation. •. Recruited an alliance of survivors, nonprofit leaders, public officials, and entertainers to organically amplify the message. •. Integrated the campaign into city-wide outreach, public programming, and survivor-led discussions. RESULTS •. Visibility: Millions of unpaid impressions driven by earned media, influencer shares, and community engagement. •. Political Recognition: Acknowledged in the Georgia Governor’s public address and included in the award-winning documentary Trafficked. •. Impact: The campaign ran concurrently with the largest human trafficking arrest in Atlanta’s history, rescuing children and exposing a major ring. •. Coalition Building: Triggered new partnerships between law enforcement, nonprofits, and civic organizations. •. Civic Resonance: Became Atlanta’s most talked-about and recognized anti-trafficking campaign at the time. REFLECTION Truth in Trafficking wasn’t designed to raise eyebrows—it was designed to raise hell. By refusing to look away from the pain, we forced a city to see what it had long ignored. This campaign proved that when you match creative audacity with social urgency, advertising doesn’t just move products—it moves people.