Fck The Cupcakes is a not-for-profit organisation that engages men in the fight against gender equality. Because without men, there is no cure.

For International Women's Day in 2023, a time saturated with campaigns only talking to women,

we needed to cut through and speak with men. Convincing them to actively click attending to IWD events and be part of the solution.

1 in 2 men think we’ve done enough to fix gender equality [1]. Leaving women twice as likely to organise equality initiatives like International Women’s Day (IWD). A day that’s largely seen by men as a “women’s event”.

But, how can we create change, if the one day that assesses how far we have to go, is only witnessed by women?

Men are detached and unaware of the critical role they can play. Yet engaging men can have the biggest impact on gender equality [2].

At a time saturated with campaigns talking to women, we needed to cut through and speak with men.

[1] IPSOS 2022

[2] UN Women

OBJECTIVES:

1. Engage men in the conversation

(Impressions & engagements)

2. Educate and equip men with tools to create change

(Web traffic)

We needed to invite men to IWD in a way they couldn’t ignore.

To draw these men in, we didn't use shaming tactics that only caused them to shy away. We leant into their interests and behaviours while being provocative enough to get men talking.

In early 2023, Andrew Tate was one of the most googled people in the world and his influence on men, particularly school boys, was unparalleled. Through social video Tate regularly shared video's that included extreme ideologies of misogyny, teaching boys that their success was based on their ability to act aggressive, misogynistic, derogatory, and violent towards women. Even labelling women as a "man's property."

And it wasn't only Tate sharing these harmful videos. His content became impossible to escape due to the viral nature of his business model. Paying young boys and men to reshare his toxic videos on their own platforms and making his influence even more widespread. This meant that even as moderators including TikTok removed Tate's original videos, the content and his influence continued to live on through thousands of other users. A vicious cycle of misogyny that needed intercepting.

So we took on the world’s biggest misogynist, Andrew Tate, and his army of followers to make him the mouthpiece of our campaign, dubbing it 'The Invi-tate-ion'.

Using a clever editing technique we took his hateful words and turned them into an open invitation for men to 'show up' this IWD.

Meaning that in a world where Andrew Tate and his viral videos were impossible to escape, we hijacked his influence on the algorithm to turn his toxic narrative into something more positive.

We targeted the ‘moveable middle’ to become better allies. Men who are not actively doing wrong, but perhaps weren't sure what to do right.

With no media budget, every phase of our campaign was designed to be shared with men and let them know that showing up, leaning in and listening was the most powerful message they could send this IWD.

Appearing on social media, the video went global after being reshared by LinkedIn thought leaders from Rob Mayhew to Cindy Gallop before making UK BBC’s ‘video of the day’. Although not everyone was willing to take the risk, concerned that resharing our campaign and or message would end in a lawsuit. But that didn't stop us.

We assembled an army of prominent industry leaders to get involved. Writing thought pieces and prompting their audiences to Show Up this IWD.

We even drove men to a campaign hub, compiling educational tools from FAQs to email templates that communicated the importance of male attendance at any IWD events.

Men went from standing by to leaning in and showing that equality starts with equal attendance.

Delivering 21.8 million impressions.

Conversations went beyond Aussie men, receiving international attention on the UK BBC's Video of the Day.

Men joined a conversation they didn’t even know they were invited to.

With male engagement on IWD content going from only a quarter to almost half [3].

Creating a 59% uplift and $670,000 in earned media from local and global outlets.

All with $0 spent.

[3] The Lab NYC, 2023

Housed on our Fck The Cupcakes website were tools and resources designed to drive actionable change.

Traffic to the site was critical.

The provocative campaign generated 11,000 unique website views.

With a 772% increase in traffic YoY.