ALERT (Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams) is connecting with teens directly to warn them against the dangers of sextortion, where children are coerced into sending explicit images online and then extorted for money. In Alberta, online child sexual exploitation offences have increased by more than 185% in the past five years.

The Butt Out, Creeps campaign launched in early October and will be in market across Alberta for another three weeks. The campaign consists of a website (butt-out-creeps.ca), videos and digital ads on TikTok, SnapChat, Apex, and YouTube. The website provides easily digestible information on what sextortion is and how to handle it. DDB Canada developed the creative and also handled media placement.

So far over five million impressions have been delivered in the Alberta market with the campaign planned to deliver over 11 million in total. Teens are sharing the ads with friends, and most importantly, engagement with links to resources like Kids Help Phone, NeedHelpNow.ca, and ALERT are in the thousands.

Since teens don’t tend to respond to heavy-handed messages, the campaign was created to speak to them in their own language, along with singing and dancing eggplant and peach emojis. The singing eggplant tells kids: “Don’t be a wang, don’t be a boob, sending nude pics to strangers makes you look like a newb.” The peach character sings “If someone you know asks you for a nude, tell someone you trust, then ghost that weird dude.” Both executions end with a call to “get smart about sextortion.”

ALERT was established and is funded by the Alberta Government. The unit is a compilation of the province’s most sophisticated law enforcement resources committed to tackling serious and organized crime. Integrated ICE teams investigate offences related to the exploitation of children over the internet.