Greater Manchester marks one year since #IsThisOK launch with next phase of campaign

Today the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester are launching the next phase of the multi-award-winning #IsThisOK? campaign.

The campaign is being launched with a short video, which shows the types of behaviours that happen in public and contribute to gender-based violence, such as sexual harassment and unwanted sexual comments. The film makes clear that these behaviours make women and girls unsafe and uncomfortable and that they are not socially acceptable.

A new campaign website is also being launched, and advertising to support the video will be going up on billboards and as posters across Greater Manchester, alongside digital and social media and a TV advert, in the coming weeks.

The #IsThisOK? campaign is aimed at young men and boys and calls on them to discuss why these sorts of behaviours are not OK. It encourages people to call it out if they see their friends, colleagues or family members demonstrating these behaviours.

Speaking about the launch, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “The #IsThisOK? campaign is so important in highlighting the behaviours that so many women and girls face daily. We can change the story in Greater Manchester and we can improve the experiences for women and girls across our city-region. But it has to start with men, lads and boys realising that this behaviour is not OK. We must work together to call this behaviour out when it happens and understand why it shouldn’t happen in the first place.”

The launch of the new phase today follows recent videos released on social media, which showed Greater Manchester’s response to last year’s campaign launch and heard real-life experiences of gender-based violence from members of the public – reaching over 700,000 people in just a few weeks of launching.

The first phase of the campaign, which launched on December 16 last year, has so far received more than 5.3 million views on social media and won two CIPR awards, including Best Public Sector campaign for the North West region.

Bev Hughes, Deputy Mayor for Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice and Fire and Co-Chair of Greater Manchester’s Gender-Based Violence Board said: "For too long gender-based violence has remained prevalent across our city-region and been an endemic issue, as it is elsewhere. That’s what our Gender-Based Violence Strategy is specifically designed to address. I believe Greater Manchester can lead the way globally, demonstrating how a city-region can come together as one to deliver real social change. It’s time to move on from just highlighting the problems we face. We need to focus on how we can change the story. These behaviours shouldn’t be inevitable and men and boys can, and must, be part of the solution.”

The #IsThisOK? campaign is based on research, engagement and insight work that was carried out prior to today’s launch. This included a co-creation workshop and survey with men, including men who admitted to previously perpetrating harmful behaviour towards women and holding negative gender attitudes. Our research also included a focus group with women, including women with lived experience of gender-based violence.

The survey findings reveal that the majority of men surveyed do not realise that gender-based violence is a problem in Greater Manchester for women. While on average three in four men surveyed said they thought gender-based violence is unacceptable, on average only one in three men said they had acted when they thought a friend’s behaviour towards women was not OK. *

Jane Gregory, Manager of Salford Survivor Project and Co-Chair of Greater Manchester’s Gender-Based Violence Board added: “The #IsThisOK? campaign is now at a really important point, showing men and boys the behaviours that contribute to gender-based violence and that women and girls shouldn’t have to put up with it. We hope that our campaign leads to positive and open discussions amongst men and boys about how this behaviour makes women and girls uncomfortable, less safe and can lead to more serious abuse – and shows how we can come together to stop it happening.”

The #IsThisOK? campaign is part of Greater Manchester’s 10-year Gender-Based Violence Strategy, which aims to deliver a whole-system approach to tackling gender-based violence across the city-region. More campaign materials can be found on the #IsThisOK? campaign website.

You can watch the video on YouTube below:

#IsThisOK? When we see it's not OK, we can say it's not OK.

Article Published: 16/12/2022 11:52 AM