Maaate

Client: Mayor of London

In 2022, we launched a successful campaign for the Mayor of London to tackle male violence against women and girls, which had become an epidemic in the UK.

‘Have a word with yourself, then your mates’ challenged men to take a look at their own behaviour when they stand by and watch misogyny happening, and to step in and stop it. We told men to ‘Have a Word,’ but post-campaign research indicated 70% still didn’t know how to call out misogyny, with 18-24 yo men least likely to step in. How could they have a word, if they didn’t know what word to use? That set up our next campaign – to find a word men could use that felt appropriate and useful, a word that was already part of culture, but wouldn’t ruin the night or break up a friend group. Finding a word wasn’t enough – we needed men to adopt it. So we targeted the channels, influencers and media they consume most. We seeded it in culture, got DJs talking about it, influencers arguing about it, and media writing about it. We deliberately targeted reactionary media, provocative journalists and outspoken columnists – creating a controversy that fuelled debate and argument across national broadcast outlets, delivering an earned reach of over 3.5bn.