Barack Obama and NCAA continue effort to eradicate college sexual violence with 'It's on us' campaign
President Obama discussed the White House and National College Athletic Association’s (NCAA) joint campaign, ‘It’s on us’ on a video posted to ESPN earlier today.
The campaign, launched late last year, aims to bring awareness and eradicate sexual violence on college campus.
It is a response to alarming numbers released by the the Bureau of Justice Statistics last year, which showed that about 1 in 5 college females experience some sort of sexual assault on campus. However, about 80 per cent of these assaults went unreported.
“We’ve been mobilizing colleges all across the country to talk about sexual assault on campus and the need for everybody to get engaged and speak out,” Obama said in the video.
The campaign was thought-up and handled by Mekanism, a relatively small agency with offices in San Fransisco and New York.
"The White House and Generation Progress were looking for an agency that would approach this critical issue in a manner that would connect with millennials, so they contacted Mekanism," said Mekanism chief, Jason Harris. "It’s On Us is not focused on those committing the acts, but rather talking to the 96 per cent of the audience that can make an impact, specifically on college campuses.”
The newest leg of the campaign urges colleges to create anti-sexual violence videos. The winning video will be featured during the March Madness final four.
Click here to see the full video.