Ad Industry movement Fck The Cupcakes asks brands to join ‘Be the Change’ equality campaign
Fck The Cupcakes (FTC), an industry movement established last year to help address gender inequality, today announced that it will launch its first major communications initiative this month, ‘Be the Change’, aimed at men to help women drive industry and wider community change, and is asking brands to join the campaign.
FTC, led by Innocean Australia CEO, Jasmin Bedir, and a team within the agency, has brought together a powerhouse of communications professionals to help develop and implement the campaign. The FTC committee includes creative (Innocean), media (Hearts & Science), PR (Edelman), digital (Performics Mercerbell), and publishers (10 ViacomCBS, JCDecaux, ARN, Hoyts, and Val Morgan), as well as supporting organisations Never Not Creative, shEqual, and Impact.com.
The ‘Be the Change’ initiative and FTC is also putting out the call for brands to come on board to support the campaign and help effect change.
The ‘Be the Change’ campaign will take a different approach, focusing on men and inviting them to take part in the conversation. The recent shEqual Advertising Equality report confirmed that men were disengaged from the subject, with more than half (54%) believing that gender equality is prioritised, while only 29% of women agreed.
Says Bedir: “As a collective, we recognised that our industry has created campaigns that put the solution to equality in the hands of one gender – hint: it’s the same gender attending equality talks.
“The truth is many men have disengaged from the conversation. For the vast majority of men, they do not relate to the stories of extreme sexual assault, unfair dismissal or domestic violence so often covered in mainstream media. They have no lived experience of what the average woman goes through in their daily workday, nor their unconscious contribution to it. Brand owners form an important role in helping to change the conversation, and we would like more to help us ‘Be the Change’.”
This year, FTC is inviting men to ‘Be the Change’ – in the workplace, in circles of friends, in families, and with strangers and to stand beside women to strike out casual misogyny. The campaign will use humour to engage with men on their own terms. In addition, a consumer and trade teaser campaign will launch in February to help encourage more brands and media owners to get involved.
The multi-media campaign already has support from the production industry and media partners, including 10 ViacomCBS, JCDecaux, ARN, Hoyts, and Val Morgan. FTC is also in discussions with men’s groups, including Man Cave, Line and Length, and Our Watch, to sense check and provide valuable feedback on the campaign concept.
SaysRod Prosser, chief sales officer, 10 ViacomCBS: “We want to acknowledge that many men want to help and be responsible for positive change, but in such a nuanced conversation, many don’t know how. We’re on a mission to help people recognise the problem and then create a safe space to learn the tools to listen, ultimately giving permission to contribute to the fight for gender equality 365 days a year.”
Says Jodi Paton, chief people officer, Hoyts Group: “Reducing gender inequality at work requires action at all levels. Being honest about our professional landscape as it stands today is vital. We want to seek to understand bias and our role as an organisation in reducing it. Rather than being fearful of the answers, we need to ask ‘What can we do?’ so that we can understand the systems and practices that may be barriers to achieving gender equality. As a media owner, we want to drive the conversation that will lead to sustainable, systemic changes that widen our definition of success and leadership across our industry.”
Says Pete Whitehead, chief commercial officer, ARN: “We’re proud to be helping FTC to be the change they seek. By providing access to our audience of over eight million Australians, ARN will play a critical role in driving awareness around the unconscious gender bias that exists in our industry and beyond. We’re looking forward to seeing the campaign come to life and even more importantly, the results of the efforts.”
Says Alissa Bartlett, chief people officer, JCDecaux: “We are really excited to be part of such a courageous and authentic initiative. JCDecaux has embarked on an important D&I journey of its own and while we are just starting out, supporting this campaign helps us effect change not only from within, but across our communities at large. Our media platform gives the campaign a supercharged voice and provides critical reach to all people, everywhere.”
The teaser campaign is launching this week.
For more information or to get involved, visit: www.be-the-change.com.au
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fckthecupcakes/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fck-the-cupcakes/
12 Comments
Fantastic initiative. Hats off to the blokes willing to listen and be vulnerable for the sake of change – these are the leaders we need more of.
The release says: ‘The campaign will use humour to engage with men on their own terms.’
Am I missing something or is there more work to come?
It does use humour – whether you find it funny or not is another matter
Haha you tell him!
Great campaign! Amazing initiative!
I don’t.
I wasn’t trying to be a troll. I just didn’t see any humour in any of those three headlines.
dude, just shhh and say it’s good like the rest of us.
Genuine question: what does success look like?
It’s a worthy initiative but how are these ads talking to men? They’re generic headlines on outdoor sites.
Is what these headlines are….
Just to clarify what the release already states, this is just the first phase of the campaign. We need more brands and organisations to jump onboard to help us deliver the main campaign. That’s the purpose of this activity. Clearly this first phase doesn’t use humour. Cheers. Fck The Cupcakes.
If your campaign is to utilise humour, surely, as part of this campaign, shouldn’t the first phase also utilise humour? Or are they not really phases but separate campaigns around the same issue? I look forward to seeing phase/campaign two. Cheers