CASE STUDY
Tricked
The Challenge
TRICKED is a feature-length documentary that portrays the reality of sex trafficking in the United States. The award-winning filmmakers follow pimps, johns, girls, parents and law enforcement agents fighting trafficking, providing unprecedented access into their worlds and creating a comprehensive portrait of the American sex industry today. TRICKED highlights the pervasiveness of this crime, which takes place in our own backyards, often overlooked and ignored. TASC was retained to promote the New York City premiere, drive interest in the film on a national level and use the film to launch a national grassroots movement to change the narrative that sex trafficking is a third-world problem that does not exist in the United States.
Our Strategy
TASC worked to change the dialogue on the issue of sex trafficking at the national level and create new messaging that would resonate with audiences and the media. We strategically positioned and placed the filmmakers, survivors and law enforcement officials in the media as expert commentators. TASC created and managed strategic partnerships for the film with MTV and UNICEF USA, and recruited influential advocates and members of the media and entertainment industries to publicly support the film ahead of its release. TASC also capitalized on the intense media attention around Super Bowl XLVIII, which took place in New York right after the premiere, to bring national attention to the issue.
Results
Over the course of our engagement, TASC generated 321 unique national and international media hits for TRICKED that resulted in over 74 million media impressions. This coverage moved the dial on the national conversation on sex trafficking, brought the film to thousands of theaters and homes nationwide, landed a major deal with Netflix and resulted in the Arizona Attorney General’s office use of the film as a training tool for law enforcement officials at Super Bowl XLIX in Phoenix the following year. The film was the subject of stories in outlets such as PBS NewsHour, PBS.org, CNN, MSNBC, the Associated Press, ABC’s Katie, Glamour, FOX News, HuffPost Live, Ms Magazine, Cosmopolitan, The New York Times and The Hollywood Reporter.