CASE 158 / Deutsche Telekom / 2023
#ShareWithCare: A Message from Ella
A fictional future voice made the consequences of today’s photo sharing easier to imagine.
AI-assisted research and analysis for the SNS Creative Fieldbook; published by SNS Media Tech. No named human reviewer is claimed.
Sources reviewed 2026-11-05
Campaign credits belong to the original creators. They did not write or endorse this analysis.
Credits: adam&eveBerlin for Deutsche Telekom. Effie Europe also credits Mindshare and emetriq as contributing agencies.
Recognition: 2024 Effie Europe Silver, Positive Change: Social Good – Brands.
Launch / edition: 2023. Award years: 2024.
The problem. The idea. The experience.
Deutsche Telekom addressed parents and guardians who share children’s images online. The communication problem was the distance between a pleasant present-day post and possible later loss of control over that image. This is a historical campaign analysis, not an assessment of any individual child’s risk.
How the idea came to life
The July 2023 film used a digitally aged version of a nine-year-old actor, Ella, to speak from an imagined future. Telekom explicitly describes the exercise as staged and exaggerated. It should not be described as documentary footage of an unsuspecting family or a prediction of what will happen to a particular child.
How it reached people
The international film was followed by German-language distribution in September. Telekom paired the attention-getting story with education resources such as Teachtoday and Scroller. The film introduced the issue; the supporting material provided a route toward more deliberate sharing decisions.
Supporting sources: Primary brand announcement → Primary brand update → Primary award archive →
Read the data in context.
The numbers below describe different kinds of outcomes. Their date, scope and reporting source are part of the result.
- Reporting period
- By 4 September 2023, following the July launch
- Scope
- Video views, not unique viewers or demonstrated changes in sharing
- Evidence
- Deutsche Telekom September 2023 update
By 4 September 2023, Telekom reported more than one million YouTube views. Effie Europe confirms the 2024 Silver award. Views do not establish safer sharing, and award recognition does not validate every risk estimate used in a campaign.
The creative mechanism.
A staged future-self story connects an everyday action to a longer-term consequence
Make a distant consequence imaginable
People often understand an abstract risk without connecting it to their own routine. A carefully labeled hypothetical can bring the time horizon closer. Keep the scenario proportionate and distinguish possibility from probability. The creative should help someone make a considered choice rather than leave them with the impression that harm is inevitable.
Give the warning a practical second step
Attention without agency can create anxiety or avoidance. Pair a concern-based story with specific, accessible choices and explain what those choices can and cannot accomplish. Test whether readers understand the next step in their own words. A resource click is useful evidence of interest, but it is not proof that a household changed its practices.
Disclose the construction inside the experience
A synthetic likeness can make an imagined future vivid while also undermining trust if the audience thinks it is authentic testimony. Put the explanation where viewers will encounter it, including short edits. Clear the performer’s rights and safeguarding arrangements. Do not collect or age real children’s images merely to make a demonstration feel personal.
Evaluate concern and comprehension together
A film that creates more alarm is not automatically a better educational intervention. Assess accurate understanding, perceived ability to act and unwanted distress alongside attention. Use voluntary, low-pressure feedback and avoid asking participants to reveal children’s identities or private incidents. In this category, responsible boundaries are part of the creative quality.
The intended behavior loop
- 01Recognize a familiar sharing habit
- 02Consider a clearly fictional future consequence
- 03Read practical privacy guidance
- 04Choose whether to change a specific behavior
Growth job: Create concern about an overlooked habit → offer practical privacy choices. This is an interpretation of the mechanism, not an audited attribution model.
A direction to take into the room.
Original editorial interpretation and proposed adaptation. This is a proposed adaptation, not historical campaign execution or a forecast.
The transferable principle
Use a clearly labeled future scenario to make an overlooked decision concrete, then offer a realistic action.
Keep these boundaries
Do not create frightening personal predictions, use children’s likenesses without appropriate permission or mistake fear for understanding.
Turn the lesson into a test.
Illustrative adaptation, not a historical campaign fact
A small-team experiment
An adult community workshop tests two illustrated explanations of public versus limited photo sharing without using anyone’s personal photos.
Build the test
- Use fictional adult characters and label the scenarios.
- Offer a plain-language checklist and an accessible text version.
- Ask volunteers to explain one privacy choice; collect no names or images.
Measure the right thing
Compare accurate comprehension and comfort, keeping stated intentions separate from observed actions.
Know when to stop
Stop or revise if the exercise creates unnecessary distress, implies guaranteed protection or asks for private family information.
How this reading fits your brief
Start with the useful part.
Best for: Create concern about an overlooked habit → offer practical privacy choices
What to adapt: Use a clearly labeled future scenario to make an overlooked decision concrete, then offer a realistic action.
Prerequisites: Safeguarding review; Clear scenario disclosure; Actionable educational resources.
Smaller-team route: An adult community workshop tests two illustrated explanations of public versus limited photo sharing without using anyone’s personal photos. Constraint: Do not create frightening personal predictions, use children’s likenesses without appropriate permission or mistake fear for understanding.
Budget: Not established by the cited sources. No cost-fit claim is made.
Trade-offs and evidence: Read the limits below before choosing a test. There is no guaranteed reach, sales lift or ROAS.
Questions for your next brief
- What consequence is difficult to picture?
- What practical choice restores agency after the warning?
Sources & further reading.
Brand and award-entry results are attributed claims, not independent causal audits. Source links open the original third-party pages.
- Deutsche Telekom: A message from Ella →Primary brand announcement · Supports: 3 July 2023 launch account, digitally aged actor, explicit staging and educational resources.
- Deutsche Telekom: children’s images deserve protection →Primary brand update · Supports: 4 September 2023 German rollout and brand-reported YouTube view milestone.
- Effie Europe 2024: Positive Change, Social Good – Brands →Primary award archive · Supports: The #ShareWithCare section records Silver and agency credits. Other campaign results on the page are not attributed to this case.
Independent educational analysis of external campaigns. These are not SNS client projects, endorsements or claims of involvement. Campaign facts and reported outcomes are attributed to their sources. Explanations, adaptations and test plans are original analysis and hypotheses, not proven causal findings.