Rape Crisis Scotland co-ordinator discusses new campaign strategy

This is a follow up to a campaign which we launched in October 2008 called ‘This is not an invitation to rape me’ which was a poster campaign aimed at creating public debate about why women are raped and at the time when we launched it we were clear to The Scottish Government that it would need an ongoing commitment if we were to try and change deeply entrenched attitudes. We had always planned to do a follow up to it and were very fortunate to receive more funding from the Government to take the new campaign forward, which is what we have done with ‘Not Ever’. It has a similar aim to the last campaign, which was about generating public discussion and trying to challenge the idea that women ever ask to be raped.

What was the strategy you briefed Newhaven with?

What we said that we wanted was something which would provoke discussion and what Newhaven has come up with absolutely does that. It will definitely generate public discussion around the issue. We wanted something that was quite provocative and bold, which would tackle the subject in a way which would get people talking.

Do you think there’s the possibility that people might miss the point of the advert? It could be quite controversial.

It could be quite controversial but to me, watching the advert it seems as though the message of what we are trying to do is very clear. What we are trying to do is to hold up a mirror to those kind of actions and the ‘she’s asking for it’ attitudes and expose how ludicrous they are. The way that it ends with the woman saying ‘as if’ should leave people in no doubt what we are saying in the advert, which is that under no circumstances will someone ever ask to be raped and the idea is ludicrous and outdated.

What reaction have you had in the hours since it launched?

It’s been very positive. We had quite a lot of press coverage yesterday and today from the launch, but we’ve also had a number of emails from people coming through. Once again we have a dedicated campaign website and the reason for that, as with the last campaign, in order to generate discussion we need to provide a forum where people can debate the issues. Already we’ve had a number of emails through the website from people who have been very positive about the campaign. We’ve also had a number of people post comments on the website, some negative and some positive, which is again what we wanted. Not that we wanted negative attitudes but if people have these attitudes we want them to be aired and brought to the surface so they can be challenged. That debate has very much started already on the website.

How else with the campaign be supported?

We have the campaign website as well as a Facebook page, a Twitter account created specifically for the campaign as well as posters which have been designed to support the campaign.

What would you hope that this campaign achieves ultimately?

Ultimately we want people to consider their attitudes and consider whether or not they really think that it’s ok and that a woman would ever ask to be raped. I suppose if people begin to look at their own attitudes they will begin to encourage other people to challenge those attitudes if they hear friends or colleagues expressing them. Comments like ‘She asking for it’ can be quite innocuous, but actually they can be really damaging in terms of cultural attitudes towards women.