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.
It 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.”
The ad will be accompanied with a series of posters and digital ads showing a transgender woman, a young Jewish man and a lesbian couple, among others, being targeted by these e-fit figures.
The campaign begins today (October 31) on VOD, and in display and outdoor across England and Wales from November 5, with media planning handled by Wavemaker and buying by Carat and Manning Gottlieb.
Andy Tighe, director of communications at The Home Office said: “Through this bold multimedia campaign, the Home Office wants to show members of the public what a hate crime is and that it is unacceptable.
"It is important to reassure communities that the government is taking hate crime seriously and this innovative campaign will help address the attitudes and beliefs that foster hate crime.”
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: 'Tackling Hate Crime'
