White Ribbon UK is the country’s leading charity engaging men and boys to end violence against women and girls. Through education, awareness-raising and campaigning, the charity works tirelessly to change the attitudes and behaviours that lead to abuse.
With the official White Ribbon Day occurring on the 25th November each year – kicking off the global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence – the charity needed a campaign that would not only raise awareness but also drive tangible action. The challenge was to create a moment that would cut through the noise and challenge deep-seated misogyny, while inspiring men across the UK to take responsibility for calling out harmful gender stereotypes in their everyday lives.
To meet this challenge, we worked with the charity on the development of a ‘We Speak Up’ campaign – a powerful, art-led initiative designed to visually and vocally celebrate male allyship.
Working in collaboration with award-winning artist Claudia Janke, who has worked on human rights campaigns around the world, we created a striking portrait series featuring 16 men from diverse backgrounds across the UK – from firefighters to family lawyers – each committed to ending violence against women. The number of ambassadors was chosen specifically to represent the 16 Days of Activism.
This saw the ambassadors travel to our Beckford offices, where Claudia used a traditional instant box camera to capture their individual portraits. Alongside this, our video team then captured ambassador interviews where they talked about their reasons for joining the campaign and speaking up for women and girls. Our design team also created specific branded assets to help ‘We Speak Up’ stand out as a specific campaign within the wider White Ribbon activity.
To bring the campaign to the public, a high-profile launch event and exhibition took place at centre:mk in Milton Keynes, one of the UK’s largest shopping centres on White Ribbon Day itself. This saw various representatives attend from a mix of organisations, with the 16 developed portraits subsequently displayed in a gallery that was in situ throughout the 16 Days of Activism.
The displays also incorporated QR codes that led to the videos we’d created to enable the curious to explore each ambassador’s background and motivation.
Our media strategy was two-tiered to maximise impact. We issued a major national story to announce the campaign launch, while simultaneously executing multiple tailored regional releases to spotlight individual ambassadors in their local areas. This ensured the message resonated on both a national level and within local communities – with our PR team. Other amplification of the campaign saw digital advertising vans display the powerful case study videos outside Parliament and in central London, with many MPs wearing white ribbons to the House of Commons too. Throughout the 16 Days of Activism, momentum was also maintained by spotlighting a different ambassador each day across White Ribbon UK’s social channels.
The ‘We Speak Up’ campaign delivered a huge impact, successfully placing a vital conversation at the forefront of the national news agenda.
Over the course of the campaign, we secured almost 80 pieces of coverage, ensuring the message reached millions. Highlights included:
Beyond the headlines, the campaign delivered powerful real-world results for the charity. While the campaign was live in November, White Ribbon UK saw a major spike in website traffic with 90,000 new users visiting during the course of the campaign. This awareness translated into action, with more than 1,000 new ambassador enquiries and White Ribbon badge purchases helping to prove that the campaign successfully inspired men to move from passive support to active allyship.
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