FHM Rape Culture Communication Strategy - Proactive

  • View
    68.561

  • Download
    2

  • Category

    Business

Preview:

DESCRIPTION

This week two FHM writers in South Africa upset most of Twitter with tasteless jokes about rape. I think this is a good opportunity for a magazine that is uniquely placed to influence a section of society that often gets alienated in discussions about gender-based violence. Who knows? Maybe something like this could achieve positive social change. These are some very broad ideas about how I think they could do it.

Citation preview

FHM Rape Culture Campaign

Proactive Communication StrategySarah BrittenJuly 20 2013

The Challenge

How to take social media outrage, gender based

violence and a lad magazine

and turn all of this into a campaign that (might)

achieve genuine, positive social change.

The Background

2 FHM writers made really

stupid, really offensive jokes about corrective

rape.

This is what happened.

Stupid offensive joke

Stupid offensive joke

Unwise offensive joke

(It’s corrective, not correctional. Just

saying.)

Technically, I’m a target of that

joke.

This, if you’re not certain,

is corrective rape.

“”Corrective”is ironic..

A lot of people were unhappy about those

jokes.

Max and Montle got into trouble with

their boss.

(Although a lot of it doesn’t read like an

apology at all)

So they apologised.

We haven’t ended up with anything useful though.

.

To some, Max and Montle look like victims. Nobody

wins.

1. Rape culture is sustained by an entire social context.

LET’S LOOK AT THE SITUATION.

2. You’re never going to combat it unless you address

those who perpetrate it as well as those who are

victims of it.

3. And that means you need to understand your target

audience.

Academic feminist hat

(I’m thinking about this with my pragmatic marketing hat

on, not my academic feminist hat.)

There is an opportunity here.

Because of its readership, FHM is the

one magazine that could make a difference to

combating rape culture.

Guys who read FHM are not going to change their behaviour or

attitudes because other people tell them to.

INSIGHT NO 1

Guys who read FHM are more likely to change because they

want the approval of other guys (and hot women).

INSIGHT NO 2

Don’t tell them what to do.

WHICH MEANS

Ask them how they would solve the

problem.

INSTEAD

What you really want, is to make it

horribly, pathetically uncool to promote

rape culture.

>Insert tasteless rape

joke<

Bro, don’t do that

*totes awkies*

Carcinogens

But how? Here’s a

suggested step by step guide. a complete

Douche

The complete A-z guide to

not being

Guy found when I

googled “douchebag”

Recommendation

STEP 1: Ask your readers how they would combat the problem. Have honest conversation where guys open up about what really goes on. Maybe even give away prizes to participate.

STEP 2: Get the women you feature in your magazine to speak out against rape culture. And remind guys that women don’t respect men who don’t respect them.

STEP 3: Get male role models to speak out against rape culture.

(Preferably the kind of guys that every other guy wants to be.)

STEP 4: Make heroes of ordinary FHM readers who are prepared to speak out. Give them cool prizes. Make being a decent guy a mark of social status.

Bring your advertisers on board. Make more money being

the good guys. What’s not to love?

See? Easy. (Ok. Maybe not. But still.)

Dr Sarah BrittenStrategic PartnerTwerker in training@Anatinussarah@usesoap.co.za

Recommended