Early June saw Our Watch, an Australian not for profit organisation committed to ending violence against women and their children, launch a new campaign called ‘The Line’ to promote healthy masculinity dressed up with the ad approach, look, feel and tone of a sportswear brand.
Recognising that young men (in particular) don’t like being told what to think, The Line has adopted the look, feel and tone of a street wear brand to
The message is housed within a ‘trojan trainer spot’ as this is the type of advertising that young men authentically seek out and interact with – thus eschewing the usual non-profit, PSA approach partly because young men in particular do not like being told what to think.
The initiative was spearheaded by a spot running under the title ‘Never Follow’ and airing across cinemas and running across social and digital channels.
The hero animated ad features a hero character rejecting traditional stereotypes of what it means to be man – from the pressure to act tough and hide emotions in order to fit in, to the pressure to engage in activities that objectify women – and instead he walks his own path, as his own person.
Integrated into the campaign, created in harness with agency Thinkerbell, is an opportunity for viewers to claim a free pair of the limited edition, campaign-exclusive Volley trainers sneakers shown in the spot: the enter the competition consumers simply need to answer a question about what ‘there’s no one way to be a man’ means to them.
Agency Tinkerbell’s Adam Ferrier explained: “By using streetwear as a Trojan horse for a more meaningful message, the campaign circumvents resistance and instead prompts users to step forward and actively engage with the concept of what masculinity means to them.”
“Repressing emotions, using aggression to gain respect or disrespecting women and girls to be considered ‘cool’, are just some of the rigid expectations men and boys are often socialised to demonstrate,” added Our Watch marketing and communications director Siobhan McCann.
“In order to help young men challenge society’s rigid expectations of masculinity, Our Watch’s youth campaign, The Line, has launched ‘Never Follow’ – a campaign that shows that there is no one way to be a man.”
The campaign was created for Our Watch Marketing Director Siobhan McCann, Senior Marketing Advisors Stephanie Francas, Nicola Weston and Jess Strickland by a team from creative agency Thinkerbell that included Tom Wenborn, Anna Yates and Josh Green, as well as Jim Ingram, Nikia Shepherd and Adam Ferrier.
It was produced by Di Nash and Amy Neave, directed by Evan Viera, while the creative director was Alan Dickson, with production handled by Yukfoo Animation and the media agency was Carat.
Comment:
By taking the kind of guerrilla tactic often employed by youth-focused challenger brands, this cause initiative both sneakily engages under the radar and in parallel generates positive PR.
This campaign follows in the footsteps of several other recent stand out sports-led initiatives combating violence against women.
The Russia 2018 saw several such campaigns such as Solace Women’s Aid #Stopitcominghome (see case study) and the National Centre For Domestic Violence’s ‘Not So Beautiful Game’ campaign (see case study).
Links:
Our Watch
https://www.instagram.com/ourwatch/
https://twitter.com/OurWatchAus
https://www.facebook.com/OurWatchAus
https://www.facebook.com/OurWatchAus
Thinkerbell
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