Young people don't watch Shuga because it teaches them something. They watch it because they love it.
This session brings together a curated screening and live dialogue to unpack one of entertainment-education's core tensions: the people making the content have outcomes in mind, and the people watching it couldn't care less. They're there for the drama, the desire, the humour, the messiness, the parts that feel embarrassingly real.
Shuga Global has spent years figuring out why that works. The answer keeps coming back to: trust. Young audiences don't respond to messages. They respond to stories that don't lie to them and reflect their lived experiences.
Through trailers, iconic scenes, audience reactions, and live conversation with young people, funders, partners, and researchers, the session pulls apart how emotionally honest storytelling creates influence that's hard to measure and impossible to ignore.
HIV. Abortion. Masculinity. Desire. Friendship. Power. From Kenya to India, Shuga has never touched these topics safe and that's exactly why they land. The stories are messy, intimate, sometimes uncomfortable, occasionally with a little spice. Young people choose to watch them because they feel true. And they stick around long after the credits roll. And the stories speak to them years later. In spaces we can't measure.
The session is designed as a three-act story structure, mirroring the architecture of storytelling that makes Shuga resonate across generations and geographies.
Young people don't watch Shuga because it teaches them something. They watch it because they love it.This session brings together a curated screening and live dialogue to unpack one of entertainment-education's core tensions: the people making the content have outcomes in mind, and the people watching it couldn't care less. They're there for the drama, the desire, the humour, the messiness, the parts that feel embarrassingly real.Shuga Global has spent years figuring out why that works. The answer keeps coming back to: trust. Young audiences don't respond to messages. They respond to stories that don't lie to them and reflect their lived experiences.Through trailers, iconic scenes, audience reactions, and live conversation with young people, funders, partners, and researchers, the session pulls apart how emotionally honest storytelling creates influence that's hard to measure and impossible to ignore.HIV. Abortion. Masculinity. Desire. Friendship. Power. From Kenya to India, Shuga has never touched these topics safe and that's exactly why they land. The stories are messy, intimate, sometimes uncomfortable, occasionally with a little spice. Young people choose to watch them because they feel true. And they stick around long after the credits roll. And the stories speak to them years later. In spaces we can't measure.The session is designed as a three-act story structure, mirroring the architecture of storytelling that makes Shuga resonate across generations and geographies.
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Istmo - 4 International Social and Behavior Change Communication Summit info@sbccsummit.orgTechnical Issues?
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