SUB CATEGORY :

INNOVATION FOR HUMANITY

ENTRANT COMPANY :

TBWA, SYDNEY

TITLE :

CLASSIFY CONSENT

BRAND :

CONSENT LABS

ADVERTISER :

CONSENT LABS

AGENCY :

TBWA\SYDNEY, SYDNEY

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER :

PAUL BRADBURY

MANAGING DIRECTOR :

TANYA VRAGALIS

CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER :

EVAN ROBERTS

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR :

KATRINA ALVAREZ-JARRATT/RUSS TUCKER

ART DIRECTOR :

EDWIN CONCUBIERTA

COPYWRITER :

EKIN GUNES

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER :

LISA BROWN

AGENCY PRODUCER :

LISA BROWN/NEVILLE GOTLA

DESIGNER :

LOUIS ROYLE/EDWARD FRANCISCO

CLIENT SERVICE DIRECTOR :

VANESSA DI BLASIO/HELEN CAMPBELL-BORTON

STRATEGIC PLANNER :

RACHEL TUCKER/KELVIN CHONG

PR DIRECTOR :

MERISSA LENNON

PR AGENCY :

ELEVEN PR, SYDNEY/FLEISHMANHILLARD, SYDNEY

PR DIRECTOR :

JAMES MURRAY/REEGAN SAIANI

PR MANAGER :

GEORGIE STARR/ELLA MUELLER

FILM PRODUCTION COMPANY :

BOLT, SYDNEY

PR FILM :

MATT CREIGHTON

POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY :

BOLT, SYDNEY

EDITOR :

KENT HAU/JASON CAPIZZI

SOUND DESIGNER :

BEAU SILVESTER

MOTION GRAPHIC :

JAKE MARTIN

SOUND PRODUCTION COMPANY :

BOLT, SYDNEY

SOUND ENGINEER :

BEAU SILVESTER

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY :

Background
In a post-MeToo world, Australia took action, passing progressive consent legislation. But two-thirds of Australians weren’t taught about consent and couldn’t define it. We needed an original way to create mass awareness around consent.

Consent Labs, Australia’s leading consent experts, were working to bridge the gap through education.

But there was one space where all progress was being undermined, and Australians were collectively spending 780,000,000 hours a year watching it. We needed a disruptive approach for a pervasive problem.

Insight
Lack of consent is normalised every day, and it happens on screen. It’s so normalised that 3 in 5 people can’t recognise non-consensual acts in films.* And research has proven that the more we depict lack of consent as casually funny or romantic on screen, the less seriously we take consent in real life.**
If we classify things like “drug use” in content, why not classify “lack of consent”?

Idea
Our idea was simple: We launched a campaign for our innovation – a “C” classification for lack of consent, only film classification that turns entertainment into education.

Beginning by posting TikTok videos that exposed lack of consent in famous scenes from Ratatouille to Bridgerton, the posts were watched and shared millions of times, driving social conversation.

The movement spilled into global media. Soon Netflix had endorsed our classification; and 71% of Australians wanted it as law^. We’re now working with the Australian Government to officially bring the first-ever “lack of consent” classification to films from 2023 – innovatively using pop culture to create cultural change.
* 3 in 5 of Australians are unable to recognise non-consensual acts when seen screen ( Pureprofile; July 2022)
** Prof. Lippman, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
^ 71% of Australians believe classifying scenes should be a legal requirement (PP July)

THE BRIEF :

While new consent laws have swept across the nation, two-thirds of Australians still can’t define what sexual consent is. Government ads were heavily criticised, and few measures have led to meaningful results. We needed a fresh approach in order to make a cultural impact.

We realised that films constantly depicted sexual coercion and assault, but they were hidden in comedic or romantic contexts. Troublingly, most viewers were unable to recognise these acts despite watching them constantly. Examples included forcing a kiss on an unsuspecting woman, to having sex with a man who begs you to stop.

Instead of allowing these acts to remain unacknowledged, we created a classification that was the first of its kind: a “C” for “lack of consent” that would work just like a “violence” classification to call it out in content, without disrupting the viewing experience. This meant that viewers would be empowered to recognise non-consensual acts in all contexts – not just on screen, but in real life. It would also turn the most popular entertainment into education, giving viewers a new lens on consent.

THE STRATEGY :

Previous attempts to impact our culture around sexual consent used a government-led top-down approach, targeted at youth. Consent Labs’ primary audience is young people (aged 12–24). So our strategy was to meet them where they lived: on social media. We launched our campaign on TikTok, exposing the non-consent in famous scenes as examples that would attract our classification.
Supers on each scene unpacked why these moments lacked consent, and each post, watched millions of times, became its own educational asset, drove conversation using material that people were already watching.
The opportunity for our innovation of a new classification was most compelling in the surprise of its use: the more unexpected the scenes, from a cartoon to a romance, the more engaged our audience, the greater the impact.
The classification meant that Australians watched content through fresh eyes, seeing the non-consensual acts we had previously missed.
With social media abuzz, we pitched the story to mainstream media where journalists unearthed their own examples of non-consensual acts in even more films* – a demonstration of the power entertainment through the lens of a new classification.
* “Ad pick of the week”, Campaign Asia, “Will James Bond be cancelled?”, SMHerald

THE EXECUTION :

In 2014, a criminal case came before Australian courts in which a man argued that he ignored when women said “no” because Bollywood films had taught him this was acceptable.*
Non-consensual acts are constantly normalised in the world’s most popular entertainment – movies. It’s in French cinema and Bollywood, in Snow White and Star Wars. The phenomenon is so prevalent that academics have proven that comedic or romantic depictions actually impact how we think about these acts in real life.
Our innovation of the first-ever film classification specifically for “lack of consent” will empower viewers to see lack of consent like never before – all through the everyday act of watching a film.
That’s why our launch of posting beloved film scenes, only to expose the lack of consent within them, went viral on TikTok: the shock value enlightened audiences that this, too, was what lack of consent could look like. With the backing of Netflix, we’re now working with the Australian Government to officially bring the new classification to films in 2023 – changing consent culture, millions of screens at a time.
* ”Security guard avoids jail by blaming Bollywood for stalking habit”, The Guardian, January 2015

THE RESULT :

With 3 in 5 people unable to recognise sexual non-consent in popular films, our objective was to undo this normalisation by calling it out with its own, unique classification. To launch our campaign, we took romantic and funny film scenes but revealed the clear non-consensual acts within them – having sex despite someone saying no, filming someone without their knowledge, secretly removing a condom – and posted them on TikTok. Our posts were watched over 6 million times and drove lively debate that showed an organic engagement previously missing from official education campaigns.
PR brought the campaign to global media, so millions saw examples of what non-consensual behaviour could look like and even started to share their own examples from film. With an earned reach of over 200 million, 71% of Australians wanted our innovation to become law* and platforms like Netflix endorsed the new classification. We’re currently working with the Australian Government to implement the first-ever “lack of consent” classification and apply it to new releases from 2023 onward – turning the most popular entertainment into consent education with a simple classification.

* 71% of Australians believe classifying these scenes should be a legal requirement (Pureprofile 22)