The World Cup is a global celebration, but there’s a darker side to the tournament.
FIFA predicts some 6.5 million fans will attend games over the coming weeks, with nearly half coming from overseas. Seattle’s King County Prosecutor’s Human Trafficking Unit recently predicted the tournament will see a spike in sex trafficking and tourism.
Seattle agency DNA&STONE (shortlisted for Adweek’s 2025 Agency of the Year) is launching a campaign aimed at raising awareness around sex trafficking. Starting Monday, when Seattle’s Lumen Field hosts its first game, and lasting for the duration of the tournament, “Poison the Fantasy” includes broadcast, social, digital display, billboards, projections, and placements around World Cup venues and in bars and restaurants on key game days.
While predominantly covering Seattle, the campaign also has national reach in Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
“We were looking at how to impact this issue in the most direct way possible. We had to get to the source. We need to understand the motivation of the buyer—what will really get in the way of them taking action,” agency co-founder Alan Brown told ADWEEK.
Humanizing the victims on both sides was one way to land hard-hitting messaging. Brown and his colleagues spent the past year talking to everyone connected to the issue, from cops to pimps, sex-trafficking survivors, and nonprofit and community organizations.
Paired with bold graphics and imagery that mimics the visual style of soliciting sites, the digital display and OOH work feature real-life testimonials, including a daughter who said, “My dad was buying girls my age, 16! He no longer felt safe to me,” and an ex-wife who said, “While he can never escape the fact that he used another human and paid her for it, I can never escape the fact that I married a person who did that.”
These “Detestimonials,” as the agency calls them, show the devastating effect buyers’ actions can have on family and friends.
“We had to cut through and reach those buyers in a way that’ll make a difference, because otherwise it just turns into wallpaper,” Brown said. “This isn’t intended to be an anti-commercial sex campaign, or anti-men or anything—but we are trying to be provocative in the messaging.”
The campaign is entirely pro bono, done without a client, which required DNA&STONE to collaborate with partners including The More We Love, Dunn Lumber, KIRO/CBS, Pacific Outdoor, and NW Polite Society. The OOH work includes a QR code directing users to buysexpayprices.com.
