We launched a campaign for a film classification (“C”) to call out lack of consent, by exposing non-consensual acts in famous scenes and posting the videos on TikTok. Our TikTok posts organically sparked debate with each post and went viral with over 6 million views. The more unexpected the scene, from a children’s film to a beloved rom-com, the greater the audience engagement.

The campaign was picked up by global media with an earned reach of over 200 million. Netflix endorsed the classification, and we’ve now partnered with the Australian Government to officially implement the classification in 2023.

Most Australians still don’t know what sexual consent is*. While new, progressive consent laws had swept the nation, our everyday understanding of sexual consent had not progressed. Government educational ads had been widely criticized. Not-for-profit group Consent Labs had tried to bridge the gap through workshops, but we needed a fresh approach in order to make a cultural impact.

We realised that Australians collectively watch over 780,000,000 hours of films a year - a form of entertainment, but also a vehicle to influence cultural norms.

And academics have shown the capacity of films to impact real-world behaviour by depicting antisocial acts as trivial, acceptable and even desirable.**

We wanted to empower Australians to recognise non-consensual acts on a mass scale - but without a traditional, top-down approach.

* 65% of Australians can’t define consent (Pureprofile; July 2022)

** Prof. Julia Lippman, University of Michigan; Prof. Sujata Moorti, Middlebury College

We realised that films constantly depicted sexual coercion and assault, but they were hidden in comedic or romantic contexts. Troublingly, 3 out of 5 viewers were unable to recognise these acts.*

We launched #ClassifyConsent, a campaign for the first-ever film classification (“C”) to call out lack of consent.

Just like with “violence”, the simple classification informs viewers of “lack of consent” in content. But it’s also the first classification that turns entertainment into education each time it’s used. Every instance becomes a health and wellbeing opportunity: not just to inform the viewer, but to empower them to recognise sexual consent in all contexts of life.

The classification would give viewers a new lens on consent: the more unexpected its application, from a cartoon to a romance, the more engaged our audience, the greater the educational impact.

*57% of Australians can’t recognise non-consensual acts in films ( Pureprofile; July 2022)

Previous attempts to impact our culture around sexual consent failed by using a government-led top-down approach, targeted at youth. Consent Labs’ primary audience is young people (aged 12–24). So our strategy was to meet them where they lived: on social media. We launched our campaign on TikTok, exposing the non-consent in famous scenes as examples that would attract our classification.

Overlayed supers unpacked why these scenes lacked consent, and each post was watched millions of times, becoming its own educational asset and sparking debate with material that people were already watching.

The classification meant that Australians watched their favourite content through fresh eyes, seeing what they had previously missed.

With social media abuzz, we pitched the story to mainstream media where journalists independently unearthed their own examples from films – proving the strategic effectiveness of consuming entertainment through an educational lens, rather than trying to make education entertaining.

We launched our campaign for a new classification by first exposing the prevalence of lack of consent in famous scenes. Using supers overlayed on the scenes to break down thow they lacked consent, we posted these clips on TikTok where they went viral and ignited lively engagement with every post.

Our posts drove users to our #ClassifyConsent website, where thousands pledged their support for a new classification and downloaded consent toolkits.

Every touchpoint of the campaign became an educational asset that used pre-existing and often iconic media as a teachable moment on consent. Our scenes also gave Australians a new lens through which to consume entertainment, with hundreds even submitting their own examples.

The conversation spilled to global mainstream media, sparking a movement that has led to us partnering with the Australian Government to implement the first-ever “lack of consent” classification, to all films released in Australia from 2023 onward.

Our TikTok posts that revealed lack of consent in unexpected scenes got over 6 million views and sparked vibrant conversation, shares and engagement with every post, turning everyday entertainment into consent education. The more surprising the movie clip or still (a cute animation, a family classic), the greater the impact. A shift in perception was evident, as Australians shared hundreds of more examples from film.

Once the movement went mainstream we gained a global earned reach of over 200 million, and saw 71% of Australians supporting the classification*. Our classification earned the endorsement of Netflix and other platforms, and the Australian Government expressed interest.

The ultimate result is our partnership with the Government to officially implement the first-ever “lack of consent” classification in 2023 - impacting consent culture, millions of screens at a time.

*71% of Australians believe classifying “lack of consent” should be a legal requirement (Pureprofile, July 2022)