2026 ADVERTISING FILM - IRELAND
(Public Awareness & Political Party)

Pause before you post - Data Protection Commission

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Pause before you post - Data Protection Commission -

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Title: Pause before you post
Brand: Data Protection Commission
Production Company: Sweet Media
Entrant Company: Core Creative Ireland
Director: John Hayes
Editor: Lee Hickey
Client: Data Protection Commission
Post Production Company: Outer Limits
Production Company Producer: Core Creative
Creative Director: Mark Tuthill & Helena Jones
Copywriter: Mark Tuthill
Art Director: Helena Jones
Account Director: Jo Mullins
Notes: Social media has turned childhood into something publicly documented, with family milestones and everyday moments routinely shared online by parents. Known as Sharenting, they perceive this behaviour as harmless or affectionate. Yet research shows that just 20 publicly available images can create a deepfake of a child, while 50% of images on child exploitation forums were first shared by parents themselves.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission wanted to highlight the risks. In response, we created a film that forced viewers to experience the same unsettling realisation as the parents on screen.
Within days of going live, Sharenting conversations surged 100x, The film reached 90M people in its first month, growing to over 120M globally. It spread across five continents, trended across languages (with parents translating the work to share) and broke into mainstream media, becoming a catalyst for a global conversation between parents about a behaviour they’d once considered harmless.
Pause before you post - - Data Protection Commission JPG
Pause before you post - - Data Protection Commission MP4 40s
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