Create an Ad for the UN: Two weeks to go

With only two weeks until the deadline of 31 May, hundreds of creative Europeans have already contributed submissions to the United Nations Ad Competition on “Violence Against Women.”

“We encourage everyone to enter and be part of the movement to say No to Violence against Women,” says Afsané Bassir-Pour, director of UNRIC.

First prize is a 5,000 Euro cash prize and two important prizes are given to the winner of the public vote and the best under 25 entry.

Building on the success of the 2010 competition on the Millennium Development Goals, WeCanEndPoverty, UNRIC launched a new ad competition this time focusing on gender equality on 8 March 2011, International Women’s Day. It is calling for an end to all forms of violence against women and girls.

Entries have to be submitted to the competition website: www.create4theun.eu.

The winners will be announced on 25 November 2011 - the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The competition is open to all citizens and residents in Europe and the task is to create an ad that says NO to violence against women and girls.

An impressive alliance of newspapers have agreed to become UNRIC´s media partners in the promotion of the Ad competition. Among them are Le Monde.fr, Irish Times, El Pais, El Publico, La Stampa and the Metro International newspapers.

The winners will have their work displayed on the campaign website with the possibility of exhibits in major UN centres and placement in European print media. A jury of graphic design, advertising, photography and gender experts will select a winner. Chairman of the jury is the French advertising personality Jacques Séguela, vice-chairman of Havas.

The competition is realized in cooperation with UN Women and  is part of the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s UNiTE to End Violence Against Women campaign.

The Council of Europe which adopted a groundbreaking Convention on Violence Against Women on 11 May is one of the United Nations partners. “It is our hope that the ads in our competition will be a powerful reminder to European leaders to sign and ratify the newly adopted convention ,” says UNRIC Director Ms. Bassir-Pour.

As of 15 May 700 have sent submissions to the competition from 37 countries out of the 48 European UN member states. Most have come from Poland, followed by Portugal, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey.