My oath: UNIFEM asking every Aussie male to swear not to commit violence against women

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Picture 384.pngImagine if we could get every man in Australia to swear an oath declaring they simply won’t stand for violence against women anymore. That’s the challenge of the new UNIFEM – White Ribbon Foundation campaign.

To begin the mass movement this year, former Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Simone Bartley and ECD Mike Newman have teamed to create Australia’s first annual National Swear Day on November 25. They’re asking all Aussie blokes to swear online at www.myoath.com.au. The oath is a simple pledge not to commit, excuse or remain silent about violence against women.

Says Bartley: “This needs to become a mainstream social priority because 1 in 3 women suffer violence in their lifetime (we’ve seen many high profile incidences this year alone) and every week more than one woman in Australia is killed by her partner in our ‘lucky’ country.

Says Newman: “Swearing is something Australians do naturally. This is avery inclusive and slightly irreverent approach to what is an otherwisedifficult issue. The idea targets all 10million Australian men andwe’ve recruited some prominent Australians from all walks of life tokick things off. Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was happy to say ‘I Swear’ when he launched National

Swear Day at the annual White Tie Dinner and agreed to become a lead figure for the campaign.

SWEAR.png“He’s been joined by the likes of Keith Urban, Gerry Harvey, Rove,Hazem El Masri, Dicko, Joe Hockey, Peter Garrett, Lt Gen Ken Gillespie(Head of Army), Adam Goodes, Alan Fels, Billy Birmingham, Shannon Noll,Kochie, Michael Long, Hamish and Andy, Wil Anderson, Lars Rasmussen(Google’s premier geek) and many, many more of Australia’s best.”

Over 30 individual press, magazine and radio ads have been created,along with TV and YouTube films that will spread via a social mediacampaign. All personalities are tweeting – even Rudd has done soalready several times. Key on air personalities around the country(both TV and Radio) will reach millions more by ‘swearing on air’ tomorrow -November 25.

Pop idol Paulini is releasing her new single, Scarless, in tandem withthe campaign. And in a world first …. the ‘I Swear’ campaign will bethe first ever Google WAVE campaign, led by co-inventor of the newsocial networking tool, Lars Rasmussen himself.

Says Andrew O’Keefe, chairman, White Ribbon Foundation: “So many menfrom so many backgrounds have told us that they love this campaign.From the PM to the Council garbos. The genius of the My Oath campaignis that it very simply mainstreams a difficult topic. And in that way,it sums up the message to all Australian men: that part of being agreat bloke is being a great mate to women too.”

SWEAR-2.pngSays Bartley: “I have been involved with UNIFEM and White Ribbon Dayfor several years now and this is the campaign I had always hoped tocreate. Mike and I set out to find a way to engage all Australian mento help stop violence against women and the idea of Australians havingtheir own National Swear Day just seems like a great way to do that.

“This idea is so powerful it made the job of recruiting the prominentpersonalities to inspire Aussie men and the industry talent we neededto bring the many facets of the campaign together seem easy…. well,not that easy.”

Adds Newman: “There are many important causes, but they can come acrossas being a little too ‘worthy’ in their ads – to be really succesful,ideas need to get into the vernacular and people have to be comfortableto spread the word themselves. Swearing is very Australian. It makesthe campaign approachable.”

Strategy, Idea and Campaign Co-ordination: Simone Bartley and Michael Newman

Public Relations: CPR Communications

Media placement: Zenithoptimedia

Digital and Web build: Deepend

Film and video: Like Productions

Art Direction and Design: Design by Design

Studio: One Eyed Dog Design

Social Media: Google Grants and Google WAVE

Postscript: Simone Bartley texted CB this afternoon: “Today’s PR is about the campaign launch for National Swear Day. It is not an agency launch at all. Though, judging by the response, maybe it should be”.