Campaign ruined the 'good' vibe and spoke out against sexual harassment

Task

Sexual harassment has for many years been seen as a ‘you’ problem: Don’t go home alone. Drink a little less. Sit far away from that person. The conversation has been very much about the victim and the perpetrator. What if we made it more about all of us who see it happen? The community and witnesses who turn a blind eye and ignore sexual harassment or ignore unwanted sexual attention. Too many people are exposed to unwanted sexual attention, but we can do something about it together. The campaign for the Ministry of Gender Equality and the Alliance against Sexual Harassment (including HK, DA, Kvinfo, Kvinderådet, Sex & Samfund, Lederne, DUF) should help to ensure this.

Solution

With the younger target group in mind, we chose a path for the campaign where we mimicked the automatic reactions you can have as a witness to sexual harassment. The form became a kind of anti-advice, where we encouraged people to “just smile and laugh”, “distract yourself with memes”, “leave the situation” – combined with a message that it’s no fun to ruin the ‘good’ vibe. But that this is exactly what is needed: To speak up on behalf of others, and to stop smoothing things over.

The campaign makes it clear that the good vibe is not transgressive, degrading or exploitative – and should never be at the expense of you and your boundaries.

The campaign film premiered at a launch event at the Hotel and Restaurant School, followed by a panel discussion with participation from cases and alliance members.

Result

The campaign emphasized the importance of standing together against sexual harassment. Thus, the alliance members shared and disseminated the campaign’s messages. The messages and the campaign’s testimonies received press coverage in Go’ Morgen Danmark and Echo. And through our own channels, the campaign reached over 1 million young Danes aged 16-34. In addition, we created a massive debate: 10,000 in the target group have reacted, shared and commented. Young people even participated in competitions for the campaign merchandise.