The Home Office: Tackling Hate Crime by m&c saatchi

The Home Office has launched a campaign to combat verbal and physical attacks on people according to their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity, and demonstrate how such actions equate to hate crime.

It's a sad reality that hate crime is a regular occurrence on the streets of the UK, with perpetrators failing to register the severity and knock-on effects of their actions.

Created by M&C Saatchi London, the creative focuses on behaviours that are already criminal such as aggressive verbal abuse and harassment, but due to their hate-based motivation, fall into the 'hate crime' bracket.

The ad covers different situations where hate crime may occur in day-to-day life, such as a woman being targeted due to her hijab and a man being taunted for his wheelchair.

To register the criminal nature of the perpetrators, their faces are replaced by police e-fit style images.

The ad concludes with one of the attackers getting approached by police outside his house. Over the top of the action, a voiceover explains how targeting anyone with verbal, online or physical abuse because of their religion, race, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity could be a hate crime.

The final line: “It’s not just offensive. It’s an offence.”