Humans on Mars before gender equality on Earth: UN Women Australia examines our priorities in new campaign via The Monkeys
UN Women Australia has releases its latest campaign via The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, called “Equality: Our Final Frontier”, which highlights that we’ll see humans with a colony on the Moon before there is gender equality on Earth.
With robo-farms, humans walking on Mars, and a Moon colony all predicted to happen before we reach global gender equality, space isn’t our final frontier – gender equality is.
The World Economic Forum currently predicts it will take 135.6 years to close the global gender gap, a number that increased due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in halting progress towards gender parity across several economies and industries.
In response, UN Women has released the new campaign, produced by FINCH, that calls on Australians to examine the timeline for gender equality as we trail in this urgent battle.
“Equality: Our Final Frontier”, is an eerie, animated film that shows a woman leaving a protest march in 2022 and walking through a future that changes in every area except gender equality. The film was directed by award-winning motion design director Jonny Kofoed from film collective Assembly, who used AI animation techniques to transform live action footage into animation, placing a real woman into an otherworldly, imagined future. Kofoed used existing and emerging technology, as well as real projections, to visualise the incredible milestones humans are currently expected to reach before gender equality.
Says Simone Clarke, CEO, UN Women Australia: “In an age where technological advancements have unlocked the answers to some of the biggest challenges of our time, it’s incomprehensible to me that gender equality ‘might’ exist somewhere in the future. The future for women is now, and we can’t afford to wait any longer. We need to Act Now and make gender equality a reality in OUR lifetime.”
Says Tara Ford, chief creative officer of The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song: “Providing some real-world reference points of advancements in technology and humanity shows just how absurd (and horrifying) it is to have gender equality pegged for even further into the future. Unbelievably it’s now predicted equality will not be seen for another four generations. We hope our campaign inspires action not just contemplation.”
The campaign was created by The Monkeys, with support from UM and Edelman Australia, as well as generously donated media from partners including Seven Network, Nine Network, Network 10, JC Decaux, Southern Cross Austereo, Mamamia, VM Cinema, oOh! Media, QMS, NOVA Entertainment, Running Boards, Hyped Media, Meta and TikTok.
UN Women Australia is calling to change this timeline and ensure that amidst all this progress for humankind, we are not leaving gender equality behind. Australians are urged to act now at unwomen.org.au.
Client: UN Women Australia
CEO: Simone Clarke
Advisor: Sunita Gloster
Creative Agency: The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song
Group CEO and Co-Founder: Mark Green
Group Chief Creative Officer: Tara Ford
Group Chief Creative Officer & Co-Founder: Scott Nowell
Managing Director: Matt Michael
Chief Client Officer: Belinda Drew
Executive Creative Director: Barbara Humphries
Head of Innovation: Beth O’Brien
Copywriter: Lizzie Wood
Art Director: Katie Kidd, Aicha Wijland
Business Director: Lisa Zimpel
Senior Business Manager: Isabella Chidson
Planning Director: Charlotte Marshall
Social Strategist: Charlotte Goodsir
Head of Production: Penny Brown
Senior Producer: Kaija Wall
Producer: Cathryn Cooper
Executive Digital Producer: Tamara Wohl
Designer OOH & Social: Eva Godney, Mel Watson & Eimear Moroney
Creative Solutions Lead: Emma Moore
Production Company: FINCH
Director: Assembly, Jonny Kofoed
Executive Producer: Assembly, Jane Oak
Managing Director: Corey Esse
Executive Producer: Loren Bradley
Producer: Duncan Bernard
Music: Rumble Studios
Composer: Adam Moses
Music EP: Michael Gie
Sound Design: Massive Music
EP/MP: Kat Aquilla
Sound Engineer: Abby Sie & Simon Kane
Media Agency: UM
PR Agency: Edelman
14 Comments
Nice animation folks.
This is beautiful. Thought it was going to be a bit gimicky, but I reckon the craft is elite.
The PR headline “Humans on Mars before gender equality on Earth” is excellent! I was expecting some great things.
Unfortunately the PR headline is much better than the actual work sorry. I had to watch the film a few times to understand it and see all the written cues. Shame, as the idea is really strong!
I shared the other UN “When will she be right?’ film, but I’m not sure this one has the same impact.
I hope it works for others.
I presume from this there is gender equality at The Monkeys and that they are 150 years ahead of the rest? Can someone confirm that.
I see from the credits that the CCO, ECD, creative team, production team, planning, social and account service are women, can someone confirm they also have men represented equally in each of these departments?
And while we’re at it, has gender equality been achieved in all companies associated with the production (and supporting companies mentioned) of this excellent initiative, including the client?
BTW, I thought it was illegal in Australia to pay women less than men for the exact same role?
A good idea here. A sorry truth and cool story given the assembly touch, with punchy headlines and voila!
Important cause, no doubt. But is that ALL we can do in this country?
Beautiful animation & art direction. Well done all.
Gender parity in terms of wages is usually misrepresented in the media so it seems like men are getting paid more for the exact same job. But that is not what it is (usually, though that also happens). You are correct it is illegal. The paygap is almost entirely due to men being in more senior positions, thus paid more. There are all sorts of reasons for that, some due to sexism and many not to do with it. A very complex issue over simplified by stats about ‘pay gap’.
A really well put together and well thought out campaign. Well done all.
Hi Ad Industry! While we’re talking about this great work, why not discuss what our industry is doing (and not doing) to lead by example on this issue. The recent research* is showing the major hurdle for women everywhere is the clash between child-rearing and workplace equality. When career and kids aren’t facilitated to work together, that’s when women’s equity starts to really plummet. And Adland has been historically bad at helping women overcome this.
So, we’re gently hijacking this thread to openly ask all agencies: who can say they are genuinely doing everything they can to tackle this issue beyond the work and behind closed doors? The WGEA suggests**:
1. Conduct a pay gap analysis (and being accountable for improvement targets)
2. Introduce a robust gender neutral paid parental leave policy (including paid super)
3. Normalise flexible working arrangements (for everyone)
4. Rethink and redesign part-time roles for managers (note, part-time comes in many formats not only 4 days per week)
5. Inclusive recruitment and promotion practices (your mat leave policy is great, but are you making an effort to hire part-time working mums)
6. Support training and transitions
Any takers on addressing these points openly? Can confirm, it’s kinda hard to broach this during the hiring process.
mumsinads@gmail.com
*https://www.smh.com.au/national/national-gender-pay-gap-analysis-paints-bleak-picture-for-women-20220624-p5awed.html
**https://www.wgea.gov.au/age-and-the-gender-pay-gap
Powerful stuff and beautifully crafted on all fronts. It’s mind blowing to realise all this could/will happen and inequality still lagging behind. Well done all.
Great idea MIA. Thank you (and The Monkeys/UN Women) for opening up this important industry conversation. We’ll go first:
1. At Bullfrog, we have conducted a pay gap analysis and reviewed salaries (internally and against industry standards) to ensure no gender imbalance.
2. Our gender-neutral parental leave policy includes:
– 6 months paid leave, including super
– If an additional 6 months is taken, super is still paid during that time
– Leave can be spread at half-pay over 12 months, as needed
– 10 days paid Pregnancy Loss Leave
– 10 days paid Fertility/IVF/Surrogacy/Adoption Leave
3. Our flexible working policy is a crucial part of our hiring process. For those who work part time, our non-working days are fiercely protected and proudly shown on our email signatures.
4. Almost half of our Senior Leadership Team work part time (3/7), and the entire Bullfrog team actively takes advantage of flexible working hours and days, as needed.
5. As for our inclusive recruitment and promotion practices:
– 20% of our team are returned-to-work mums (that’s 7 staff out of 36)
– 6 of those mums have chosen a 3 or 4 day arrangement
6. And our parental leave policy is designed to flex to each parent’s needs, to support their own personal development, training and transition back to work.
Plus, our gender-neutral People Policy includes no-questions-asked family & domestic violence leave, free and encouraged EAP counselling, free KIC & AIA Vitality subscriptions, floating public holidays, a generous self-improvement allowance and more.
Agreed, it can be difficult to broach these topics during the hiring process. That’s why we will be releasing all of the above and more details of our People Policy very shortly, so keep an eye out on LinkedIn.
Who’s next?
School boy humour opening with a big c@#k & balls gag. Love it. Powerful film.
Amazing stuff. This is the benchmark.