The evidence was already there. It had been accumulating for decades in plain sight, on the breasts of bronze statues in some of Germany’s most visited public spaces, polished to a lighter shade by years of repeated groping from passers-by. TERRE DES FEMMES and Scholz & Friends did not manufacture a campaign concept. They found one that had been building itself for years and put a sign next to it.
What the Campaign Found
Three female bronze statues in Munich, Berlin, and Bremen share the same visible characteristic. The Enchanting Juliet at Marienplatz in Munich, Frau Rhein at the Neptune Fountain in Berlin, and Die Jugend at the Hoetgerhof in Bremen all show their breasts worn significantly lighter than the surrounding bronze. The discolouration is the result of decades of tourists and locals repeatedly touching and groping the figures without consent, a behaviour so normalised at public statues that it barely registers as notable to most people who witness it.
TERRE DES FEMMES placed large white placards at each of the three statues bearing a single line: “Sexual harassment leaves its mark.” The placard did not explain the statues behind it. It did not need to. Anyone reading the sign and turning to look at the bronze figure behind it received the argument in a single visual connection. The mark was visible. The cause was not.
The Strategic Precision of the Execution
The campaign, launched in April 2024 under the hashtag #UnsilenceTheViolence, was built around one insight: the marks that sexual harassment leaves on human beings are invisible. Victims carry trauma, fear, and self-doubt that cannot be photographed or displayed. The statues offered a rare exception, a physical surface where the cumulative effect of repeated unwanted contact had become literally, measurably visible over time.
Marielle Wilsdorf, managing director at Scholz & Friends Hamburg, described the argument the campaign was making: “Sexual harassment is a massive invasion of privacy. The marks it leaves behind are visible on the statues, but not on the victims. It’s not a trivial matter; it’s a criminal offence. Let’s stop looking away and break the silence together.”
The campaign also addressed a specific and documented pattern of silence. Affected women frequently do not report sexual harassment out of fear of not being taken seriously, or worse, of being accused of provoking it. The statues cannot report the repeated contact they receive. Neither can the people who resemble them too often.
The Numbers Behind the Campaign
Two in three women in Germany experience sexual harassment during their lives. Germany’s national helpline for violence against women received 61,235 contacts in 2024, more than three times the 18,812 calls logged in 2013, a figure that reflects both rising awareness and growing demand for support. According to the European Institute for Gender Equality’s 2023-2024 data collection, 32% of ever-partnered women in Germany have experienced psychological, physical, or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime.
The campaign ran for three days before permit restrictions required the placards to be removed, a limitation that became part of the story. The brevity of the physical installation was documented and distributed, extending the campaign’s life significantly beyond its three-day presence at the statues.
What It Won
Shot on Faber-Castell picked up a Bronze at Cannes Lions. Unsilence the Violence picked up a Gold at the New York Festivals, a Bronze at Cannes Lions, a Bronze at Effie Germany, Gold at The Best Agency awards, and Gold and Silver at the London International Awards. For a campaign that cost the price of three printed placards and three days of permits, the return in both cultural impact and industry recognition is considerable.
TERRE DES FEMMES has been campaigning against human rights violations against women for over 40 years. Unsilence the Violence is among its most widely distributed and discussed executions, not because it invented a new argument, but because it found evidence of an old one that had been sitting in public view the entire time.
Campaign Name: Unsilence the Violence / #UnsilenceTheViolence
Agency Name: Scholz & Friends Hamburg
Brand Name: TERRE DES FEMMES
Location: Munich, Berlin, and Bremen, Germany
