Elder abuse is rampant in New Zealand. What’s worse, over 75% of abusers are their own family members.

The Office for Seniors, a government watchdog for senior citizens, needed to educate elderly on what isn’t ok and urge victims to seek help – all without their abusers catching wind. From our research on elderly media usage habits, we knew a digital campaign would be fruitless and that we needed to think traditional (with a twist).

 

So, in collaboration with the country’s top newspapers, we launched 3.6 million Undercover Crosswords. They appeared like ordinary newspaper crosswords  – a popular pastime for elderly. But one clue was different each day for two weeks; defining types of mistreatment many elderly face.

All clues led to the same answer: abuse, followed by a prompt to call a special elder abuse helpline. Calls increased by 271% - marking the highest volume of calls since the helpline’s launch.

 

Once every crossword had gone out and victims had had time to seek help, we got the media and the very newspapers that ran our crosswords to take the story to the nation, helping to finally push the hidden issue of elder abuse into the open.

 

The Undercover Crosswords. The campaign that turned a simple pastime into a lifeline.