In this commercial, we see the consequences and real-life snowball effect that can potentially follow not creating strong passphrases.
It’s morning, at home. A woman, SANDRA, in her early 40’s is smartly dressed like she’s about to depart for a corporate role in the CBD. But for now, she’s seated at her dining table with her laptop open. In the background we see that her smart TV has an online streaming ‘set up profile’ page displayed.
It’s clear that what Sandra is signing up for on the laptop is linked to the streaming service on her TV; on both screens is the same Avatar icon she’s picked for herself, above her first name.
Cutting to an extreme close up, she enters a short password, represented by a few asterisks, sequentially appearing in the text-field. The password strength bar indicates that while this is a valid password, it is a WEAK password. Sandra selects ‘Accept’.
Night, Sandra’s Lounge. We see Sandra in her comfy clothes, settling into her couch, ready to get her binge on. She points her remote at the telly, and we snap focus to the screen as the login page appears. Sandra’s name and chosen Avatar are present, but as our camera moves across the screen, it reveals there’s a multitude more Avatars with weird names like: St@n_84abc, U$er8989c, on her login page?!?
...We cut to a closeup on her face — she’s confused and tired. Her eyes search for understanding across these odd names... The day’s been long, and it’s far too late for this kind of hassle...
Morning, outside Sandra’s home. In different office-attire, she waits for an App-ordered-taxi.
On screen pop-up: ‘Payment Declined’. Cut back to Sandra to see panic now registering on her face.
Morning, office. A visibly distressed Sandra walk-runs through the office. Once in private we see her log into her bank account. We see Sandra’s anxiety intensifying. We cut to an extreme close up of her bank balance displayed on her laptop screen ‘Account Balance $0.00’. We cut back to Sandra’s face again, to her world falling apart, total horror on her face...
Voice Over: What are you risking online? Don’t leave yourself exposed.
We suddenly reverse through the closeups of Sandra’s face. They flow gracefully together as a visual sequence, taking us back from total distress, to her innocent expression at the beginning of the story with Sandra on her laptop
Voice Over: Use a unique and strong passphrase on every account.
This time, she creates a strong password by creating a passphrase. The password strength bar goes all the way up to green. We see the graphics supers appear as an overlay as Sandra confirms her strong, green-lit password.
SUPER: Act Now. Stay Secure. actnowstaysecure.gov.au
Voice Over: Learn simple steps to protect yourself at actnowstaysecure.gov.au
SUPER: Australian Government Crest.
Voice Over/SUPER Authorised by the Australian Government, Canberra.
