Girls are the key to solving world poverty

That is Plan International’s key message for 2012. And on August 23rd, the Leo Burnett advertising campaign called Mass Construction, which aims to promote the concept and provoke thought about it, will launch in cinemas inthe U.K. and on CNN.

The date has been times to coincide with the release of GCSE (the U.K. version of our Year 12 exams) results. The 60 second commercial features an African school girl falling through the sky like a missile towards a small African town. Her landing sends out shockwaves, but instead of destroying, it leads to the building of schools and hospitals around her.

Justin Tindall, executive creative director at Leo Burnett Group, said: “Poverty often feels like an insurmountable problem and because we don’t know where to start, we simply don’t. The fact that Plan know that girls are the best place to start is so simple and arresting that it demanded a narrative to make people really stop and think about the possibility.”

Leigh Daynes, Plan UK’s director of communications, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Leo Burnett. This new ad campaign is central to raising awareness of the potential of girls to lift themselves, their families and whole communities out of poverty through education and the right support. Investing in girls’ education is the right and the smart thing to do.”

Plan’s core message is, ‘Because I am a girl’. This carries their belief that females have the power to free themselves and their communities from poverty with education and the right support.