Equal Payback Project / Sarah Silverman - Close The Gap - (2014)

National Women's Law Center tapped Droga5 to work on the 'Equal Payback Project'. They in turn got Sarah Silverman in, because why not, they did the "Great Schlep" together , and that won a metric f*ckton of awards.

However, this is where it all started to go wrong. Sarah brings her trademarked crude humor to it, unafraid of genitalia props and terrible puns like literally closing a gap (ugh) by surgically becoming a man. Her humor may have been a hit in 2009, and even this joke might have worked then, crass as it is. But these days when Janet Mock is Vitamin W's woman of the year and wins the Adcolor Catalyst award 2013, Time magazine writes about "the transgender tipping point", with Laverne Cox on the cover, and Gavin McInnes is fired from the ad agency he founded for a rant about trans people, this joke is a shortcut straight to offend-jail without passing go.

This is the time when Jared Leto is called "miscast" in his Oscar winning role by Fallon Fox, the transgender MMA fighter, because Jared Leto is a "cisgender person" and not trans. This is the year of trans, did you not get the memo Droga5? This is also the year of sex positive feminism that promotes legalising sex work so hard that Amnesty international is making it a part of their mission, and there's a joke about the worlds oldest profession in there too. Uh-oh.

So the one simple topic, equal pay for equal work, that is supposed to have all feminists and their allies in total agreement, just got severely derailed before it even began. And nobody even has to bring up counter-arguments to the old "78 cents for every dollar" nugget to do it. These counter points made at social.do.gov, CBS, Wall Street Journal, payscale, and by CH Sommers picking stats apart aren't even needed. Never mind that equal pay has also been a law since 1963. This campaign is already dead in the water because Sarah Silverman finally made an offensive joke (as she does, all the time, that's her thing) that stepped on the cause de jour. Twitchy has already collected the offended replies to Sarah Silvermans tweet about the campaign. I honestly expect Sarah Silverman tarred and feathered by morning. Oooh! Next cover-photo should be that. That's kind of hot.

Client: National Women's Law Center
Campaign: Equal Payback Project
Agency: Droga5
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Vice Chairman: Andrew Essex
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Creative Directors: Casey Rand, Karen Land Short
Art Director: Sean Park
Head of Integrated Production: Sally­-Ann Dale
Senior Producer: Anders Hedberg
Broadcast Producer: Bill Berg
Executive Technology Director: David Justus
Senior Interactive Producer: Laura Bruskin
Interactive Developer: Phillip Pastore
Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Head of Communications Strategy: Colleen Leddy
Communications Strategist: William deLanoy
Head of Accounts, General Manager: Susie Nam
Account Director: Amanda Chandler
Account Manager: Belle Bonar
Associate Account Manager: Jonathan Weiss
Co-Writer/Comedian: Sarah Silverman
Production Company: JASH
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Director of Photography: Jonathan Hall
Executive Producers: Daniel Kellison, Doug DeLuca, Mickey Meyers
Producer: Nicholas Veneroso
Associate Producers: Chelsea Gonnering, Skyer Predergast
Editing, Postproduction: Droga5 Studios
Editor: Matt Badger
Crowdfunding campaign powered by: Tilt
Music: Jingle Punk