Sexual consent is a major issue. But the discussion is far too often made more complicated than it should be. And the focus tends to shift to nuance and grey areas, like questioning victims for dressing inappropriately and/or leading on intoxicated perpetrators. We needed to clearly define the issue. And that came down to one phrase: If It’s Not Yes, Its No. The campaign featured five characters: a penis, vagina, breast, bum and a hand. And they demonstrated the need for consent, within the context of relatable sexual social situations.
Launching on February 25th 2016, with absolutely no paid media, the campaign took off. Using just social videos and posts, it garnered over 14,000,000 YouTube views and 412,000,000 impressions worldwide. It was picked up by mainstream and alternative news outlets everywhere. But, most importantly, we created a new way to talk about this issue. We altered the conversation. And hopefully made the issue of consent a little simpler.