‘The Autocomplete Truth’

An Ad Campaign
By UN Women
 Global Issue and Target audience

 Gender inequality ( This can be further narrowed

depending on the Ad)

 The auto complete searches are reflective of the sexist

opinions of our society .

 The involvement of women of multiple races was

included to make the statement that all women
experience this kind of sexism and that all women
deserve a voice. 
 Visual techniques

1.Camera angle
2.Depth and Spatial elements
3.Positing
4.Size
5.Perspective
The first thing that jumps out at the viewer is the image of a real google search. This is something
most of us — women AND men — see multiple times per day. An image of such a familiar and
habitual thing grabs the viewer’s attention to pull them into further analysis of the ad. Upon further
analysis, it drives the point close to home. The fact that google is used so widely and by both
genders also makes this ad credible.
The next thing I noticed was the placement of the search box full of discriminatory statements over
the woman’s mouth. By covering up a part of her face we are dehumanizing her and, more
importantly, providing a not-so-subtle hint of oppression.
The third most important element of the advertisement is the statement written in white outside of
the search box. The ad’s creators juxtapose the oppressive statements with the empowering
statement by writing the former in black and the latter in white. They also make it powerfully subtle
by keeping the formats of both parallel: they wrote the empowering statement in line with the
google searches and followed the same pattern in which words they bolded and which they did
not.
Finally, the ad’s creators made wise stylistic choices in the composition of the ad. By choosing a
photograph of a women that only shows her face and neck, the viewer cannot determine the
culture from which she comes. Therefore, the ad does not alienate anyone. By using a dark
photograph underneath the white search box, the creators made the oppressive searches stand
out and to gave the ad an overall simple, clutter-free appearance that lets the message speak for
itself.
 This ad campaign is an effective one when it comes to the goal of national gender equality.
There are so many creative aspects and techniques that it utilizes to its advantage. The goal
of this ad campaign is to combat the objectification and suppression of women. The creators
of the ad want to encourage the public to give women an adequate representation in society.
The ads are about awareness. The campaign achieves this goal with the use of an artistic
concept that is very unique and sends a powerful message. The use of the search bar over
the subjects' mouth clearly communicates that women still don't have an adequate voice in
society. The searches in the bar represent the ideas the suppress women and keep them
from having a voice. They display the negative aspects of sexist was of thinking. The subjects'
hair and the black backdrop are kept simple, so as not to distract from the message. The
straight faces and gleaming eyes stare into the viewers and appeal to their emotions. It
shows the humanity in the women and pleads to the humanity in the viewer.
 Most ad campaigns are trying to sell products and services; In 2013, UN Women released the ad campaign,
that’s why it’s refreshing to occasionally see a campaign that
promotes a social cause. However, it’s a little bit difficult to
create a social campaign that will leave a mark and change the
point of view on a certain issue(or even create a whole new
conversation). The UN Women’s 2013 campaign, “The
Autocomplete Truth”, is an example of such an evolving effort.
On March 9 2013, a campaign was launched worldwide just to
reveal that sexism still exists and is a major issue in today’s
society. Memac Ogilvy and Mather Dubai, developed an
original series of ads based on Google searches. For the
campaign, portraits of different women, from different cultural
backgrounds, are depicted with results of actual Google
searches, on their mouths.

The ads focused on the subconscious makers of these pictures,

pinpointing web users who can be nearly ensured to have made
at least on Google Search in their lifetime.