fhm rape culture communication strategy - proactive
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.TRANSCRIPT
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@[email protected]