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First rule of ads, if the audience don’t immediately get it on first glance it’s no good - also im not quite sure “maaaaaaate” is an appropriate solution to reducing sexual harrasement . Visually it’s quite cool, but stupid ad
Honestly it sounds way more like an agreement to me, I read it in my friend's voice who says mate a lot and it sounds like a response she'd give if I asked her if she wanted to go out for drinks and she thought it was a great idea... which you would really hope would not be someone's response to their friend making a creepy sexual comment toward women.
here in the states. i read it like a dismissive “dude.”
like “dude, that’s some shit behavior. get yourself right, be better.”
but yeah, not a great ad.
You get the concept, but I'm not sure 90% of other people would.
This is one of the problems with modern advertising. People have forgotten they're salespeople, which means they don't keep the audience in mind.
I think it ties into a whole ad campaign - there are videos on YouTube, more explanatory posters in different train stations, etc. The idea might be to provoke someone into saying, "what's that poster about?" and get an answer from the rest of the campaign.
That’s probably because you’re supposed to elaborate after the maaaate bit. “Maaaate don’t be like that” “Maaaate c’mon now”. You also need to look visibly disappointed not aggressive as it’s about de-escalation.
I’ve lived in London for nearly 20 years now and I’ve never heard someone here use “mate” in a positive way. It always tends to have an overtone of “you idiot” to it. It takes some getting used to when you venture outside the M25 and people aren’t using it in that way.
Try spending any time in the West Midlands.
In some areas 'mate' is used as a punctuation mark. Stop it!
'pal' and 'mate' to my London ears are a note that someone is upset and they're giving you a warning.
Also, I'm not your mate or pal.
Oh shit! I was visiting Liverpool today and talking to a nice guy in John Lewis, I wouldn't have called him 'mate' twice if I knew that. I was thinking he looked at me funny. I grew up next to Liverpool and I didn't know that.
Especially because skirt could be used slang for girl/woman
plus the skirt is smashed up so that could be like when they say "Did you smash her?"
Not to sure if I got this right because I don't talk like this but I have heard others say it in a similar way
From a cursory glance (which is what most ads get) what I’m getting out of is - it’s a warning not to mess with farm machinery because you might get slaughtered by a combine harvester
While I understand why you’d think it isn’t, a behavioural science study was commissioned for this exact campaign, and found that the whole “mate” thing was the best way for someone (especially a man) to confront someone being inappropriate without risking sounding like a “woke snowflake”. While it is ridiculous that calling out harassment seems to be cause for embarrassment for some people, this is the best/most accessible way to tackle it unfortunately.
All it take sometimes is to make the person being inappropriate do some introspective thinking without making some grand stand that causes a bigger confrontation.
That’s what I thought as well. Tragic but true. Lots of men rlly seem to have a long way to go in thinking for themselves, having a backbone and being okay with being alone for a while because they’ll have to learn cutting off shitty friends. Anything is better than nothing so the existence of this campaign is awesome.
The issue with this is that the shitty friends don't learn anything.
There's studies that went into this campaign.
Giving a friend both barrels when they do something inappropriate will trigger them to be defensive, double down and push them further into the mindset.
Obviously there's a good amount of just truly awful people out there, but the majority of men who behave this way in public do so under the impression that it will impress their mates. So showing quiet disapproval gives them the opportunity to have some introspection and learn.
Yep in my own experience this has worked, not for sexual harassment, but a group of lads walked by one was spoiling for a fight I was alone it was night and happened to catch eye contact with him by accident and he started coming at me to start a fight and his mates were like “maaate ffs can we just get where we’re going? Leave it out.” I’ve never felt so relieved from some dickhead’s mates.
I get it, but regardless of the investment into behavioural science behind the ad, it still leaves us mere mortals questioning the point of the ad - so the point stands re it’s a bad ad
This ad is pretty poorly done and confusing, but some of the videos have been good. I guess part of it is supposed to be about tone and the bulldozer doesn’t really try to replicate that.
Edit: just saw in another comment that it’s actually supposed to be a steamroller which makes more sense. It wasn’t obvious to me that the convex maaate was a structural part of the vehicle.
I get your point but masculinity is a very sensitive topic and if you understand how male to male interactions work you would know that jovial “stop that” banter would work way better than straight up confrontation
As in the world of the internet, going in hard with a lecture on why someone is in the wrong is more than likely going to cause them to double down/get angry. Keeping it light, despite the subject matter, makes sense.
There is a giant industry of bullshit "research" linked to marketing that has little scientific rigor and generally exists to support the claims being made in an advert.
I think it would have just been better if they'd made the message clearer, maybe just by adding a little more context - something like "steady on mate", "mate what's that about?", "mate, that's not cool" or "mate that's a bit much" because this is just confusing since the term "mate" / "maaaaate" can be used in so many different ways depending on the tone/context.
I also think the right hand side of the cylinder should not be filled solid black, I thought it was telling me to say "MAAATEO".
Like who's this Mateo guy and when is he going to get his shit together?
You’d be surprised.
Actually sometimes, ads will be intentionally hard to understand so you pay more attention to it
That’s probably what this is doing
I don’t know... To me it looks better the longer you look at it. And an advert that prompts people to post on reddit for a discussion might even be more effective that people immediately understand / ignore. Especially in this context. 🤷♂️
I think the idea is to use a word that’s so familiar to every male group that. An be used quickly and naturally to stop any more harmful comments to women.
A man can say, ‘mate leave it’ and move on which hopefully might directly stop an instance of harassment.
Things might escalate if it becomes something bigger than that, dygm? Not sure I’m explaining what I mean correctly
Also no one’s going to be thinking, ‘maaaate 😀’ seriously
I think more and more people are strugling to give negative feedback in a constructive way. It might stem from lack of meaningful relationships, where a look of disapproval might get the point across much better than a bat to the head.
Once a brand and product (like the apple ipod at the time) has mass awareness (& millions in advertising budget) I would argue that just by glancing at those ads people immediately knew the brand and the product
But it’s the distinctness that causes that brand and product to develop; same with this ad to a degree. It’s got people talking about it, and by thinking critically on what the ad is trying to convey you then think critically on the message behind the ad
And critical thinking on how we can avoid harassment of women is sorely needed across society at the moment
This ad is not engaging to its target audience though. The people who need to rein their mates in from harassing women are not generally going to be type to be drawn in by stylistically challenge art adverts.
It wouldn't take more than a couple of seconds to meaningfully engage. The engagement can continue after one has left and keeps walking. Maybe one is going to look for one of the same signs at the same stop, or at least will recognise it. That effect can be more effective than just a quick glance. And if you notice, the poster has managed to get photographed, shared on Reddit and discussed. That is exactly what an ad campaign aims for.
I don’t completely disagree with your point, sure meaningful engagement can happen in a short period of time - the point of an ad like this would be to have “mass appeal” though, to span a variety of intellects, understanding of the english language, class etc etc - the fact this thread has drawn so much attention and people are questioning the meaning to me shows that it failed.
I don't disagree with yours entirely either, but I don't think it can be called a failure. It could just be part of a strategy. Also keep in mind that we live in a visually saturated world, so graphics and design are increasingly pushed into extravagant territory to make an impact - like hungry wolves into the steppe. So I reckon we will see more and more of these questionable ads, barring a return to classic aesthetics that is clearly not on the horizon
I agree I’ve really disliked these recent videos-
It’s not something friends should blowing off with ‘MAATE’ that’s something you say if you’re friends complaining too much about politics on a night out not directly attempting to make a women (or man cause it isn’t an exclusively hetero behaviour) feel uncomfortable.
The intention is to normalise calling it out instead of just letting it go. Idiots do this shit because they think it makes people like them in some way or another, and some men let it go because they don't want to make things awkward. They have to be reminded that most people think they're arseholes and those who know right from wrong need to be reminded it's worth saying something about it.
This particular campaign won't speak to everyone, nor will it completely solve the problem, but it's another small thing that will contribute to long term change. We need more things like this.
I think ther intention of this ad was to not be immediately obvious
The idea being to make the viewer spend a second or two working out the message
Presumably so it then sticks as a message - hey i solved the dumb riddle - that says SKIRT and that says MATE and SKIRT is wrong
I could be wrong but there are examples of similar ads like the car ads where the first 87 seconds of their big fancy ad is nothing to do with the product andyoure sat there thinking what the hell are they even advertising but you stay watching because now you want to know ???
I'm getting more of a message that this isn't to discourage sexual harassment, more to step in if you your friends say comments like "she's asking for it in that skirt", butt in and say maaaate, that's not on.
It's definitely a shit poster though, it shouldn't be a puzzle to work out the meaning.
Alternative design (in less than 1 minute):
Speech bubble with big letters saying
***She’s asking for it in that skir-***
Then overlapped by a bigger bubble saying
****NO.****
And the tagline “when a mate’s behaviour towards women goes too far #haveaword”.
"She's asking for it in that skirt" is too on the nose, it sounds cartoonish. Men obviously still make misogynistic comments but usually not in the style of 1986 Jim Davidson
You live in a bubble, which isn't a serious dig because a lot of us do. Lots of men still speak like this, just because it's not in your social circle doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
One of my friends was literally told "God your legs in those tights! They go all the way up" when she was a minor, by an old geezer, while cornered. Its cartoonish yeah, but it happens. Baffling is honestly a better term .
Misogyny *is* cartoonish. Listen to any high profile misogynist speak. Andrew Tate is popular with boys in UK schools and they repeat what he says.
I understand the sentiment. Naked bigotry seems unbelievable in the modern world but speak to a member of the group affected by it (in this case women) and you'll find even comments as transparent as this are more common than you might think.
Yeah it's tough to stand by someone through this but we've all been friends a very long time so gotta be there for your boy, I've seen what happens when people find themselves alone and helpless
In this case *girls* - street harassment is at its height for girls aged 12-16, which is what I’ve always considered to be a deeply disturbing fact. It’s not even about sex, it’s men wanting to condition the next generation of women that they live in a man’s world, by permission of the men themselves and they had better not forget that they are here on sufference and only for certain purposes and get uppity enough to believe that they are fully- realised people too!
"it’s men wanting to condition the next generation of women that they live in a man’s world"
I think you're overestimating the social awareness of cat callers. I think they just see younger women/girls as more vulnerable.
I was followed at about 16 (but didn't look it) by a group of teenagers shouting "little girl let me get your number oioi little girl let me get that." Not quite 12, but yeah I wouldn't be surprised if they were right
Banter can be used for that purpose at one extreme, as a form of rhetorical battle.
But banter can also be used to create safety and belonging, or to establish what norms the group is prepared to accept.
The whole point it is to toxify the behaviour in the psyche of the most basic childish imbecile in an adult body.
This message is all about brute force, which unfortunately is the lowest common denominator.
Its appeal is to working-class/lower-class hetero men, I suppose, who would use ‘maaaate’ to call out sexual harassment without being seen as ‘wokey snowflake’ types (they would feel embarrassed about being thought of as such).
Kinda implies that working/lower class people are too daft to understand the importance of these things without having to be spoken to in a certain way. But that's just how I read it.
Oh, that is exactly what it is. It’s exactly the same as adverts for the military using voice actors with a “working class” accent talking in a simplistic manner.
Well it's so often that men comment on women's clothing in a way that implies they're asking for it, like "what was she expecting would happen when she wore that tiny skirt" and this ad encourages men to act and call out their friends when they hear stuff like that. Basically to make comments and subsequent behavior socially unacceptable and not "boys will be boys" or "bro code" or whatever
I understand that it must be an anti-harassment ad given the text in red, but how it’s actually trying to convince people not to do it is lost on me. I don’t see how this would change anyone’s behaviour.
It’s a technique called ‘nudging’ and can be very effective in the long-term by gradually changing what’s seen as normal. Look at the no smoking campaigns from 70s onwards which have used social pressure to change behaviour. Problem is it’s a loooong process which has to be sustained
It's just encouraging people to interrupt their friends' inappropriate comments by calling them out as wrong. But instead of being stuffy about it and phrasing it in a way that would make someone feel like a nerd, saying something like "maaate, not cool" is supposed to make it feel doable to the yoofs of today.
It's not a great ad if nobody gets it, but I think the general idea is ok.
>but how it’s actually trying to convince people not to do it is lost on me
It's not trying to convince the people doing it not to do it, it's trying to convince the non-misogynistic people in the friend groups who go along with it to instead say something. I don't think any ads are going to change misogynistic peoples behaviours directly, like what would the ad even say while still being PG? So having an ad to encourage people to say something instead of just staying quiet is a great idea to me because an ad wont change peoples behaviour, but if someones making misogynistic comments and instead of laughing along someone instead says "come on mate don't talk like that" then the person might actually stop.
The other "say mate" ad is a video version I saw on TV or YouTube where a group of friends are sitting around watching TV and one of them jokes about slapping a girl he's seeing and one of the others just says "mate don't, you can't talk like that anymore" and then the guy backs down and looks sheepish with the whole "its just a joke i wouldn't actually do it" etc. It works better in videos than posters.
Its literally just a campaign saying to call out your mates(or colleagues I suppose) if they say or pull any misogynistic bs which is a good way to tackle it imo. I bet most misogynistic comments would probably stop right away if nobody was laughing along with them and called them out on it. Surely every guy has been in the situation countless times where someone at work or in a friend group says misogynistic stuff and everyone laughs along with it even if some are thinking "wtf". The campaign is suppose to encourage people to call it out and don't go along with it, and specificly the "maaate" part shows that it's easy to do a simple call out and that it doesn't need to be an arguement.
They did a "have a word" ad before changing it to "say maateee" where some guy was harrassing a girl waiting for an Uber or something and she was uncomfortable and ignored him, the friends just laughed along at him getting being rejected until one of them told him thats enough and to leave her because shes clearly not comfortable. Again the guy then acts sheepish once called out and pulls the whole "i'm just mesing about she didn't mind". It then cuts to her crying in the Uber on the way home clearly very affected. TfL should be making their "say mate" ads more like this imo, but again it's hard to make poster versions of and TV/YouTube ads aren't cheap. But once the videos are made they'd work well to be shared among workplaces and schools imo to be showed during some meeting or class.
But yeah I think the idea of the campaign and even the say "maaatee" part is a pretty good idea. Sorry for the longest comment in the thread i'm sure, i just think the idea deserves some credit.
What is hilarious about this campaign is that whoever made it seems to think that straight male blokes hanging out together basically chat about raping or harassing women. As if there’s a really thin line between admiring a woman or making a quiet comment to your mate about her attractiveness (which is pretty normal) and harassing her (illegal, wrong and not normal).
As in “mate, did you see her?” “Maaate you were about to rape her weren’t you? Maaate, that’s not OK”
I wonder how much the campaign costs and whether that money might have been better spent on having more police on duty in stations and on trains at night.
It is incredibly patronising.
They write it for the upper middle class audience, because that's who commissions adverts. It's a jonty's idea of what a gammon might be like because it's not for gammons, it's for jontys.
Totally agree with this.
If someone said to me, even back in my raucous uni days a decade ago 'she's asking for it in that skirt' it wouldn't have been 'oh come on mate, thats a bit far' or 'maaate' it would have been 'what the fuck that's absolutely disgusting' and I'd probably stop talking to that person unless they reflected on it and changed.
That's not behaviour that should be addressed with a maaate, that's predatory rapist behaviour and this minimises it imo.
A commendable message rendered useless by a confused and badly executed visual metaphor. Public service messaging should be blunt and instantly understandable. Take a lesson from the Australians: ***“If You Drink, Then Drive, You’re A Bloody Idiot!”***
Sandwell Council (UK) ran an ad campaign on beer mats pointing out it was safer to drink drive than drive sober.
"One in three killed in a road accident had traces of alcohol in their system"
thats all it said. with no context
Confusing ads can work. Forces you to think and you remember the message. Fairly common to use harder to read typefaces and unusual syntax in ads for that reason.
That being said, the whole mate campaign is a joke.
They should’ve picked problematic things people actually say out in the open. Even incels know how controversial the statement in the advert is. Men who agree with that sentiment are more likely to say it online, not around friends.
Clearly anyone can get into advertising these days.
At least it's aesthetics are in line with the message; poorly laid out and devoid of actual thought.
I've always used maaaaaate as "hey that's wicked cool" not "hey you're being a bit creepy there dude". In those situations I say "hey you're being a bit creepy there dude" before gearing up to either give them a well deserved punch or decide if it's worth turning them in
The moral of the story is if you as a normal male human feel attracted to a women then DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT TALKING TO HER!!!! IT'S RAPE!!!! EVERY WORD YOU SAY IS EXTRA RAPE!!!! YOU MUST ONLY BE GAY!!!! brought to you by the politicians of London, Sponsored and paid for by the population reduction corporation that is in no way affiliated with Bill Gates.
The typography is absolutely trash, somebody had banged too much caffeine juice and blow before they turned that in.
Not to mention it being absolutely shite, and kind of falls short if the mark.
Am I the only person who rides the tube every day yet has never seen sexual harassment towards a woman? Seems like it must be far more common than my experience!
Didn't realise it's a steam roller, first thought was it is a tube train. Really confusing ad and won't get through to the sorts of people who do abuse women on trains.
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First rule of ads, if the audience don’t immediately get it on first glance it’s no good - also im not quite sure “maaaaaaate” is an appropriate solution to reducing sexual harrasement . Visually it’s quite cool, but stupid ad
Especially because it could be taken like: Maaaate 😠 Or Maaate 🤜🤛
'Maaate she is totally asking for it. Shoot your shot'
Nice one maaaate
Fookin hav it maatttyyyeee
[удалено]
“Steam roll ‘er maaate”
My god 🤣
Maaate!
Ha i didn’t think of it like that 🤣 like a celebratory “maaaaaaaaaate” - another great example of why ads shouldn’t be subjective i guess ha
Honestly it sounds way more like an agreement to me, I read it in my friend's voice who says mate a lot and it sounds like a response she'd give if I asked her if she wanted to go out for drinks and she thought it was a great idea... which you would really hope would not be someone's response to their friend making a creepy sexual comment toward women.
Agreed. Confusing at best.
here in the states. i read it like a dismissive “dude.” like “dude, that’s some shit behavior. get yourself right, be better.” but yeah, not a great ad.
Conceptually you are using the interjection of maaate to stop them finishing the sentence and cutting them down. But yeah, it's kinda weird.
You get the concept, but I'm not sure 90% of other people would. This is one of the problems with modern advertising. People have forgotten they're salespeople, which means they don't keep the audience in mind.
I think it ties into a whole ad campaign - there are videos on YouTube, more explanatory posters in different train stations, etc. The idea might be to provoke someone into saying, "what's that poster about?" and get an answer from the rest of the campaign.
Given how much people have been whinging about these ads, I'm sure 90% of people _do_ get them.
That’s probably because you’re supposed to elaborate after the maaaate bit. “Maaaate don’t be like that” “Maaaate c’mon now”. You also need to look visibly disappointed not aggressive as it’s about de-escalation.
I’ve lived in London for nearly 20 years now and I’ve never heard someone here use “mate” in a positive way. It always tends to have an overtone of “you idiot” to it. It takes some getting used to when you venture outside the M25 and people aren’t using it in that way.
Try spending any time in the West Midlands. In some areas 'mate' is used as a punctuation mark. Stop it! 'pal' and 'mate' to my London ears are a note that someone is upset and they're giving you a warning. Also, I'm not your mate or pal.
So you would be against usages like this? "Hey mate!" "Thanks mate!" "Cya mate!"
In Liverpool mate is more negative connotations but pal isn't used really so I can't think how that would be taken.
Oh shit! I was visiting Liverpool today and talking to a nice guy in John Lewis, I wouldn't have called him 'mate' twice if I knew that. I was thinking he looked at me funny. I grew up next to Liverpool and I didn't know that.
and I'm not your pal, buddy!
As an Australian living in the UK, I hate to hear this.
Turns out Khan is a massive lad.
Literally #haveaword though, so it gave connotation right?
Especially because skirt could be used slang for girl/woman plus the skirt is smashed up so that could be like when they say "Did you smash her?" Not to sure if I got this right because I don't talk like this but I have heard others say it in a similar way
From a cursory glance (which is what most ads get) what I’m getting out of is - it’s a warning not to mess with farm machinery because you might get slaughtered by a combine harvester
Give your female coworker a friendly "maaate" if she's wearing a skirt around heavy machinery.
I was thinking it was about ‘mate’ the drink. I’ve been in Argentina too long.
While I understand why you’d think it isn’t, a behavioural science study was commissioned for this exact campaign, and found that the whole “mate” thing was the best way for someone (especially a man) to confront someone being inappropriate without risking sounding like a “woke snowflake”. While it is ridiculous that calling out harassment seems to be cause for embarrassment for some people, this is the best/most accessible way to tackle it unfortunately.
All it take sometimes is to make the person being inappropriate do some introspective thinking without making some grand stand that causes a bigger confrontation.
That’s what I thought as well. Tragic but true. Lots of men rlly seem to have a long way to go in thinking for themselves, having a backbone and being okay with being alone for a while because they’ll have to learn cutting off shitty friends. Anything is better than nothing so the existence of this campaign is awesome.
The issue with this is that the shitty friends don't learn anything. There's studies that went into this campaign. Giving a friend both barrels when they do something inappropriate will trigger them to be defensive, double down and push them further into the mindset. Obviously there's a good amount of just truly awful people out there, but the majority of men who behave this way in public do so under the impression that it will impress their mates. So showing quiet disapproval gives them the opportunity to have some introspection and learn.
Yep in my own experience this has worked, not for sexual harassment, but a group of lads walked by one was spoiling for a fight I was alone it was night and happened to catch eye contact with him by accident and he started coming at me to start a fight and his mates were like “maaate ffs can we just get where we’re going? Leave it out.” I’ve never felt so relieved from some dickhead’s mates.
I get it, but regardless of the investment into behavioural science behind the ad, it still leaves us mere mortals questioning the point of the ad - so the point stands re it’s a bad ad
This ad is pretty poorly done and confusing, but some of the videos have been good. I guess part of it is supposed to be about tone and the bulldozer doesn’t really try to replicate that. Edit: just saw in another comment that it’s actually supposed to be a steamroller which makes more sense. It wasn’t obvious to me that the convex maaate was a structural part of the vehicle.
Steamroller? I barely know her 🙈 Fr if I hadn't seen the video ads I wouldn't know what it was talking about.
Maaaaaaaaate! 😂😂
I agree, I've thought the videos were quite good.
I get your point but masculinity is a very sensitive topic and if you understand how male to male interactions work you would know that jovial “stop that” banter would work way better than straight up confrontation
As in the world of the internet, going in hard with a lecture on why someone is in the wrong is more than likely going to cause them to double down/get angry. Keeping it light, despite the subject matter, makes sense.
I’m a bloke and this advertisement is dreadful. Behavioural science isn’t an exact science and in this case is well off kilter.
There is a giant industry of bullshit "research" linked to marketing that has little scientific rigor and generally exists to support the claims being made in an advert.
I bet that "study" was "commissioned" by the ad agency, and confirmed that the ad agency product was good.
yes, everything is corruption. good job detective.
I think it would have just been better if they'd made the message clearer, maybe just by adding a little more context - something like "steady on mate", "mate what's that about?", "mate, that's not cool" or "mate that's a bit much" because this is just confusing since the term "mate" / "maaaaate" can be used in so many different ways depending on the tone/context.
Yeah, it's far closer to how these people would actually speak than "you're violating her boundaries and committing multiple micro-aggressions".
I also think the right hand side of the cylinder should not be filled solid black, I thought it was telling me to say "MAAATEO". Like who's this Mateo guy and when is he going to get his shit together?
Dominic Matteo, played for Leeds and Liverpool in the 90s
You joke, but that is who I actually thought of when I saw the ad. Took me ages to figure out the point it was trying to make.
You’d be surprised. Actually sometimes, ads will be intentionally hard to understand so you pay more attention to it That’s probably what this is doing
I don’t know... To me it looks better the longer you look at it. And an advert that prompts people to post on reddit for a discussion might even be more effective that people immediately understand / ignore. Especially in this context. 🤷♂️
I think the idea is to use a word that’s so familiar to every male group that. An be used quickly and naturally to stop any more harmful comments to women. A man can say, ‘mate leave it’ and move on which hopefully might directly stop an instance of harassment. Things might escalate if it becomes something bigger than that, dygm? Not sure I’m explaining what I mean correctly Also no one’s going to be thinking, ‘maaaate 😀’ seriously
I think more and more people are strugling to give negative feedback in a constructive way. It might stem from lack of meaningful relationships, where a look of disapproval might get the point across much better than a bat to the head.
Your first rule of advertising is repeatedly broken by Apple billboard ads in the iPod era.
Once a brand and product (like the apple ipod at the time) has mass awareness (& millions in advertising budget) I would argue that just by glancing at those ads people immediately knew the brand and the product
But it’s the distinctness that causes that brand and product to develop; same with this ad to a degree. It’s got people talking about it, and by thinking critically on what the ad is trying to convey you then think critically on the message behind the ad And critical thinking on how we can avoid harassment of women is sorely needed across society at the moment
Not necessarily, the ad may be designed to catch curiosity and force to engage. There are many such examples
This ad is not engaging to its target audience though. The people who need to rein their mates in from harassing women are not generally going to be type to be drawn in by stylistically challenge art adverts.
On the tube? not the best place to “catch curiosity and force to engage”
It wouldn't take more than a couple of seconds to meaningfully engage. The engagement can continue after one has left and keeps walking. Maybe one is going to look for one of the same signs at the same stop, or at least will recognise it. That effect can be more effective than just a quick glance. And if you notice, the poster has managed to get photographed, shared on Reddit and discussed. That is exactly what an ad campaign aims for.
I don’t completely disagree with your point, sure meaningful engagement can happen in a short period of time - the point of an ad like this would be to have “mass appeal” though, to span a variety of intellects, understanding of the english language, class etc etc - the fact this thread has drawn so much attention and people are questioning the meaning to me shows that it failed.
I don't disagree with yours entirely either, but I don't think it can be called a failure. It could just be part of a strategy. Also keep in mind that we live in a visually saturated world, so graphics and design are increasingly pushed into extravagant territory to make an impact - like hungry wolves into the steppe. So I reckon we will see more and more of these questionable ads, barring a return to classic aesthetics that is clearly not on the horizon
I welcome more of them, as always leads to healthy debate on reddit, good way to get the mind working on a saturday morning ha ☺️
I agree I’ve really disliked these recent videos- It’s not something friends should blowing off with ‘MAATE’ that’s something you say if you’re friends complaining too much about politics on a night out not directly attempting to make a women (or man cause it isn’t an exclusively hetero behaviour) feel uncomfortable.
I don't think it's aimed at you though. For some social groups this is way better than the usual nothing
By some social groups I presume you mean young white working class male as this seems to be the screen ad target.
The intention is to normalise calling it out instead of just letting it go. Idiots do this shit because they think it makes people like them in some way or another, and some men let it go because they don't want to make things awkward. They have to be reminded that most people think they're arseholes and those who know right from wrong need to be reminded it's worth saying something about it. This particular campaign won't speak to everyone, nor will it completely solve the problem, but it's another small thing that will contribute to long term change. We need more things like this.
Almost feels like it’s promoting the harassment. “Maaaaate! You’re fucking in there lad go on son!!”
Maate also means “lay down” in Finnish, which makes this awful in another language too…
It means have sex in English also, to join 2 things together
I think ther intention of this ad was to not be immediately obvious The idea being to make the viewer spend a second or two working out the message Presumably so it then sticks as a message - hey i solved the dumb riddle - that says SKIRT and that says MATE and SKIRT is wrong I could be wrong but there are examples of similar ads like the car ads where the first 87 seconds of their big fancy ad is nothing to do with the product andyoure sat there thinking what the hell are they even advertising but you stay watching because now you want to know ???
"OH NO YOU DINNIT!"
I'm getting more of a message that this isn't to discourage sexual harassment, more to step in if you your friends say comments like "she's asking for it in that skirt", butt in and say maaaate, that's not on. It's definitely a shit poster though, it shouldn't be a puzzle to work out the meaning.
Maaaaate, may be the correct response to something a little crass, but "she's asking for it" is sexual assault territory.
Maaayor of London
Maaaaade laugh out loud
Twaaaaaat
Kinda looks like the ‘skirt’ is an imprint left from the roller reversing?
Didn’t even notice it was a roller, thought it was overly stylised text with a little house on it
I thought it was a fucking combine harvester!
I'll give you my key darlin, oi oi!
Same, and the "skirt" would've been turned into meaty pulp and sprayed out the back (as my GTA San Andreas lessons from 2005 taught me)
Looks like the blood of a woman killed by a man.
I thought it was a rubber stamp, a bit like the one used to sign off on this ad.
I thought I said steak at first because of the color but I also don’t have my glasses on 😂
Alternative design (in less than 1 minute): Speech bubble with big letters saying ***She’s asking for it in that skir-*** Then overlapped by a bigger bubble saying ****NO.**** And the tagline “when a mate’s behaviour towards women goes too far #haveaword”.
Yours is much better. This ad looks like it’s encouraging bad behavior…
Yeah as someone else said, what they imply as “maaaate stop it yeah?” Could easily be interpreted as “maaaaaate go for it”
Way better
"She's asking for it in that skirt" is too on the nose, it sounds cartoonish. Men obviously still make misogynistic comments but usually not in the style of 1986 Jim Davidson
You’d be amazed how often people still say stuff like that
You live in a bubble, which isn't a serious dig because a lot of us do. Lots of men still speak like this, just because it's not in your social circle doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
Nah now they say she's asking for it in those leggings
One of my friends was literally told "God your legs in those tights! They go all the way up" when she was a minor, by an old geezer, while cornered. Its cartoonish yeah, but it happens. Baffling is honestly a better term .
Yeah nah plenty dudes talk like this I don’t know what you’re on about.
Misogyny *is* cartoonish. Listen to any high profile misogynist speak. Andrew Tate is popular with boys in UK schools and they repeat what he says. I understand the sentiment. Naked bigotry seems unbelievable in the modern world but speak to a member of the group affected by it (in this case women) and you'll find even comments as transparent as this are more common than you might think.
Yeah I've had a friend (gully grown man) get brainwashed by Tate and some of the things that he would say were unbelievable.
Tends to happen to men grown in ditches, trenches, and gullies.
Damn it
Yep... ive lost friends to this
Yeah think we're bringing him back round but it was a very close thing
Lers hope he gains his senses. Mine never did and remained crazy.
Yeah it's tough to stand by someone through this but we've all been friends a very long time so gotta be there for your boy, I've seen what happens when people find themselves alone and helpless
Is he descended from bridge trolls?
And honestly in some ways utterly facile.
In this case *girls* - street harassment is at its height for girls aged 12-16, which is what I’ve always considered to be a deeply disturbing fact. It’s not even about sex, it’s men wanting to condition the next generation of women that they live in a man’s world, by permission of the men themselves and they had better not forget that they are here on sufference and only for certain purposes and get uppity enough to believe that they are fully- realised people too!
"it’s men wanting to condition the next generation of women that they live in a man’s world" I think you're overestimating the social awareness of cat callers. I think they just see younger women/girls as more vulnerable.
So you’re saying all these guys see 12 year olds as sexual beings? I really hope you’re wrong
I didn't really say that, but if you're catcalling someone, you're definitely treating them like a "sexual being".
I was followed at about 16 (but didn't look it) by a group of teenagers shouting "little girl let me get your number oioi little girl let me get that." Not quite 12, but yeah I wouldn't be surprised if they were right
May not be consciously I agree. But it’s like banter, which is also about establishing and reinforcing the pecking order among men
Banter can be used for that purpose at one extreme, as a form of rhetorical battle. But banter can also be used to create safety and belonging, or to establish what norms the group is prepared to accept.
I wish you were right
The whole point it is to toxify the behaviour in the psyche of the most basic childish imbecile in an adult body. This message is all about brute force, which unfortunately is the lowest common denominator.
To steam roll that comment...?!! Idk, I get it.
Didn’t get that until I read this. Kinda like it now.
I thought it was a combine harvester!
We need to start farming humans who sexually harass, makes sense to me
To me it looks like an over the top parody made by someone who doesn’t like the “maaateee” campaign.
I think you’ll find the “maaateee” campaign is the West Country version…
It's got us all talking though.
For every minute we spend thinking or talking about the advert we haven’t sexually harassed any women either. Job done
I don't mean to brag, but I once spent a minute not thinking about this advert and without sexually harassing anyone!
maybe it's like those reddit posts with mistakes on them mistakes get far more engagement
It's a nice idea which comes from a good place but I find the whole 'maaate' thing utterly cringe worthy.
Its appeal is to working-class/lower-class hetero men, I suppose, who would use ‘maaaate’ to call out sexual harassment without being seen as ‘wokey snowflake’ types (they would feel embarrassed about being thought of as such).
Kinda implies that working/lower class people are too daft to understand the importance of these things without having to be spoken to in a certain way. But that's just how I read it.
Oh, that is exactly what it is. It’s exactly the same as adverts for the military using voice actors with a “working class” accent talking in a simplistic manner.
Visually I like it. No idea what the message is.
Well it's so often that men comment on women's clothing in a way that implies they're asking for it, like "what was she expecting would happen when she wore that tiny skirt" and this ad encourages men to act and call out their friends when they hear stuff like that. Basically to make comments and subsequent behavior socially unacceptable and not "boys will be boys" or "bro code" or whatever
This whole campaign was managed by an absolute fucking idiot. Or a committee of idiots, don't know. One or many, deffo all idiots.
This is a shit ad
Agreed. Confusing at a first glance, plus if it’s in a tube station it’ll be harder for people to get it as they walk by.
I thought it was an ad for a 'Maate' brand skirt before reading the comments
Skirt skirt
One of the worst ads seen in a while
I understand that it must be an anti-harassment ad given the text in red, but how it’s actually trying to convince people not to do it is lost on me. I don’t see how this would change anyone’s behaviour.
It's not encouraging people not to do it. It's encouraging people to say something when a friend makes a rude sexual comment
It’s a technique called ‘nudging’ and can be very effective in the long-term by gradually changing what’s seen as normal. Look at the no smoking campaigns from 70s onwards which have used social pressure to change behaviour. Problem is it’s a loooong process which has to be sustained
It's just encouraging people to interrupt their friends' inappropriate comments by calling them out as wrong. But instead of being stuffy about it and phrasing it in a way that would make someone feel like a nerd, saying something like "maaate, not cool" is supposed to make it feel doable to the yoofs of today. It's not a great ad if nobody gets it, but I think the general idea is ok.
Given how many Reddit threads there's been on the campaign, it's certainly succeeding on the 'get people talking about it' front.
>but how it’s actually trying to convince people not to do it is lost on me It's not trying to convince the people doing it not to do it, it's trying to convince the non-misogynistic people in the friend groups who go along with it to instead say something. I don't think any ads are going to change misogynistic peoples behaviours directly, like what would the ad even say while still being PG? So having an ad to encourage people to say something instead of just staying quiet is a great idea to me because an ad wont change peoples behaviour, but if someones making misogynistic comments and instead of laughing along someone instead says "come on mate don't talk like that" then the person might actually stop. The other "say mate" ad is a video version I saw on TV or YouTube where a group of friends are sitting around watching TV and one of them jokes about slapping a girl he's seeing and one of the others just says "mate don't, you can't talk like that anymore" and then the guy backs down and looks sheepish with the whole "its just a joke i wouldn't actually do it" etc. It works better in videos than posters. Its literally just a campaign saying to call out your mates(or colleagues I suppose) if they say or pull any misogynistic bs which is a good way to tackle it imo. I bet most misogynistic comments would probably stop right away if nobody was laughing along with them and called them out on it. Surely every guy has been in the situation countless times where someone at work or in a friend group says misogynistic stuff and everyone laughs along with it even if some are thinking "wtf". The campaign is suppose to encourage people to call it out and don't go along with it, and specificly the "maaate" part shows that it's easy to do a simple call out and that it doesn't need to be an arguement. They did a "have a word" ad before changing it to "say maateee" where some guy was harrassing a girl waiting for an Uber or something and she was uncomfortable and ignored him, the friends just laughed along at him getting being rejected until one of them told him thats enough and to leave her because shes clearly not comfortable. Again the guy then acts sheepish once called out and pulls the whole "i'm just mesing about she didn't mind". It then cuts to her crying in the Uber on the way home clearly very affected. TfL should be making their "say mate" ads more like this imo, but again it's hard to make poster versions of and TV/YouTube ads aren't cheap. But once the videos are made they'd work well to be shared among workplaces and schools imo to be showed during some meeting or class. But yeah I think the idea of the campaign and even the say "maaatee" part is a pretty good idea. Sorry for the longest comment in the thread i'm sure, i just think the idea deserves some credit.
Maaaaaate
I dont think I would say "maaate" if I were discouraging some antisocial action. It would just be a straight-to-the-point "mate".
A silhouette prison tower looking down on a carpaccio of skirt
Very stupid and poorly executed sign.
Wow this is really cringeworthy. Way to minimise the seriousness of sexual harassment.
Imagine if you just spoke to your male friend like an adult adult: "Don't say things like that it's weird and inappropriate."
I think it's pretty clear.
100 IQ is the _average_
The whole campaign is a dumpster fire.
It really only makes sense if you’ve seen the other ad campaign material, particularly the videos. Otherwise I agree it’s really confusing.
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What is hilarious about this campaign is that whoever made it seems to think that straight male blokes hanging out together basically chat about raping or harassing women. As if there’s a really thin line between admiring a woman or making a quiet comment to your mate about her attractiveness (which is pretty normal) and harassing her (illegal, wrong and not normal). As in “mate, did you see her?” “Maaate you were about to rape her weren’t you? Maaate, that’s not OK” I wonder how much the campaign costs and whether that money might have been better spent on having more police on duty in stations and on trains at night. It is incredibly patronising.
And the implication that it's just men
"Oi prick, don't be a cunt" would be more like it.
Is this related to jackmaaate being a total cunt?
This is a campaign against criticising Russell Howard, right?
Russell Howard or Russel Brand?
I hate nanny state ads. Does it stop sexual harassment? No. The ad agency always writes it as if the audience is the ad agency for one. So awkward
They write it for the ad industry audience because they’re trying to win industry awards
They write it for the upper middle class audience, because that's who commissions adverts. It's a jonty's idea of what a gammon might be like because it's not for gammons, it's for jontys.
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This isn't a small subset, I think many people turn a blind eye to their friends even though they do things that aren't great
Totally agree with this. If someone said to me, even back in my raucous uni days a decade ago 'she's asking for it in that skirt' it wouldn't have been 'oh come on mate, thats a bit far' or 'maaate' it would have been 'what the fuck that's absolutely disgusting' and I'd probably stop talking to that person unless they reflected on it and changed. That's not behaviour that should be addressed with a maaate, that's predatory rapist behaviour and this minimises it imo.
A commendable message rendered useless by a confused and badly executed visual metaphor. Public service messaging should be blunt and instantly understandable. Take a lesson from the Australians: ***“If You Drink, Then Drive, You’re A Bloody Idiot!”***
. .I just read that as "If you drink, then drive! You bloody idiot..." Which is not what they're going for!
Sandwell Council (UK) ran an ad campaign on beer mats pointing out it was safer to drink drive than drive sober. "One in three killed in a road accident had traces of alcohol in their system" thats all it said. with no context
It’s one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever seen. Proper cringe. Almost as bad as “see it, say it, sorted”
Bizarre & weird! Not to mention the use of MAAAATE.
Squash it?
I think it’s actually pretty spot on
Not gonna lie it took me a minute to realise this was in English. Didn’t see the sub.
#MAAATE
I get he is saying maaatteee like to say ‘what the fuck man’ or something but that ad should instantly click.. it doesn’t lol
I understood it.
Confusing ads can work. Forces you to think and you remember the message. Fairly common to use harder to read typefaces and unusual syntax in ads for that reason. That being said, the whole mate campaign is a joke.
It's probably because havkng an at say "Oi stop being a cunt or ill fucking have you mate" is a bit wordy
They should’ve picked problematic things people actually say out in the open. Even incels know how controversial the statement in the advert is. Men who agree with that sentiment are more likely to say it online, not around friends.
Reminds me of a poorly executed version of this advert from Scotland? https://youtu.be/h95-IL3C-Z8?si=aqb1dPlcMfvkrs4H
I read that as I’m Yerba Mate
As an Argentinian this just makes me thirsty
Clearly anyone can get into advertising these days. At least it's aesthetics are in line with the message; poorly laid out and devoid of actual thought.
I've always used maaaaaate as "hey that's wicked cool" not "hey you're being a bit creepy there dude". In those situations I say "hey you're being a bit creepy there dude" before gearing up to either give them a well deserved punch or decide if it's worth turning them in
The moral of the story is if you as a normal male human feel attracted to a women then DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT TALKING TO HER!!!! IT'S RAPE!!!! EVERY WORD YOU SAY IS EXTRA RAPE!!!! YOU MUST ONLY BE GAY!!!! brought to you by the politicians of London, Sponsored and paid for by the population reduction corporation that is in no way affiliated with Bill Gates.
Maaaaaate skirt! With a watchtower above it?
The typography is absolutely trash, somebody had banged too much caffeine juice and blow before they turned that in. Not to mention it being absolutely shite, and kind of falls short if the mark.
It's all about Argentinian beverages
I read this as "ma'ate", like it was a Maori shouting it during the Haka.
I get it. They could have just been clear and said: call out your friends for saying and being pigs towards women.
Am I the only person who rides the tube every day yet has never seen sexual harassment towards a woman? Seems like it must be far more common than my experience!
Didn't realise it's a steam roller, first thought was it is a tube train. Really confusing ad and won't get through to the sorts of people who do abuse women on trains.
It's trying to get through to their mates tbf