Ogilvy UK

Client: Mayor of London
Product: Male Violence Against Women
Title: Have A Word
Media: Film, Online, Social, OOH, AMBIENT
Country: United Kingdom
Date Of Campaign: 14th March 2022

Background: Male violence against women and girls is an epidemic in the UK. A woman dies at the hands of a man every three days and 97% have been sexually harassed. For too long the onus has been on women to adapt their behaviour and protect themselves. But it’s not women who need to change: it’s men. Not just the perpetrators, but the ones who stand by and let misogynistic behaviour go unchallenged. We needed to challenge men to look at themselves and shift from being passive spectators.It was about time men were the ones who were made to feel uncomfortable, not women.

Idea: ‘Have a word with yourself, then your mates’ is a simple and yet powerful call to action to start changing men’s behaviour. It tells men who stand by and allow misogynistic behaviour that they too are involved: they should ask themselves whether it’s acceptable to witness it but do nothing. It compels men to act, using peer to peer pressure, to step in and stop toxic male behaviour towards women whenever they see it happening.

Results: • 3.1billion earned impressions• 307million earned reach• 65% of social commentary was men• 77% positive sentimentHowever, genuine social change was our ambition – and schools have incorporated our film into their curriculum.The UN is including it in education and training materials being rolled out in schools and Universities across Britain.The Metropolitan Police used our film to start an online conversation.On the Mayor’s Instagram page alone, the film has been viewed over 5.5m times and was shared by Fifa, the UN, politicians, universities, councils, NGOs, sports stars and influencers – with no paid support.Proactively, TikTok put the film on their discover page and we made the front page of reddit.