CENTER FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH, SHENYANG: WORDSCANBEWEAPONS

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Craft
Category: Storytelling
Advertiser: CENTER FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH, SHENYANG
Product/Service: CENTER FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Agency: OGILVY BEIJING, CHINA
Website URL: http://www.wordscanbeweapons.com/
Client: CENTER FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH, SHENYANG
Product: CENTER FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Entrant: OGILVY BEIJING, CHINA
Type of Entry: Craft
Category: Storytelling
Entrant Company : OGILVY BEIJING, CHINA
Advertising Agency : OGILVY BEIJING, CHINA

Chief Creative Officer: Graham Fink (Ogilvy China)
Executive Creative Director: Juggi Ramakrishnam (Ogilvy Beijing)
Executive Creative Director: Doug Schiff (Ogilvy Beijing)
Creative Director: Qi Xingsheng (Ogilvy Beijing)
Creative Director: Wilson Chow (Ogilvy Beijing)
Copywriter: Guilin Bo (Ogilvy Beijing)
Copywriter: Li Chuyu (Ogilvy Beijing)
Copywriter: Juggi Ramakrishnan (Ogilvy Beijing)
Copywriter: Doug Schiff (Ogilvy Beijing)
Art Director: Wang Fei (Ogilvy Beijing)
Art Director: Jason Wee (Ogilvy Beijing)
Art Director: Qi Xingsheng (Ogilvy Beijing)
Art Director: Xiao Xiaodong (Ogilvy Beijing)
Art Director: Li Kaixin (Ogilvy Beijing)
Art Director: Fu Lei (Ogilvy Beijing)
Art Director: Xie Yong (Ogilvy Beijing)
Technologist: Eric Wu (Ogilvy Beijing)
Agency Producer: Rita Yang/Quentina Yang (Ogilvy Beijing)
Music: (Massive Music Shanghai)
Sound Design: (Kaiser Sound Studios)

Creative Execution:
We first got six juveniles held in the Shenyang Detention Center to open up to us. Their stories poured out of them and we cut together short documentaries. Craftsmen and Artists the worked together to transform the abusive words that most scarred them and turned them into the weapons they used in later years to commit crimes. For the website we created 3D renderings of the characters and weapons and told the story against a dark, urban landscape. Then the six documentaries were accessed after the intro video set the stage.


326 calls were made to the helpline in the first two weeks, along with creating 3,112,315 impressions on the Center's Weibo topic page. Over 30 websites (including government official sites) and 9 TV stations carried reports of this important campaign.


The Center for Psychological Research, Shenyang, China, is a government body that is concerned about the rise of juvenile crime in the northern region. Their research shows a strong link between juvenile crime and childhood verbal abuse. They wanted parents and teachers of Shenyang to understand that this kind of abuse can cause significant psychiatric problems, sometimes even leading to violent crime.

70% of all violent crimes in China in 2013 were committed by teenagers, 70% of whom were between the ages of15 and 17 (Phoenix News Agency).

The insight really came through looking at the words that most scarred the juveniles and the weapons they used in committing their crimes. This was the making of a startling connection that graphically would be very powerful.