Ads ask Australia to 'get it done' on marriage equality

WPP AUNZ agencies 1 Kent Street, Hogarth and MediaCom, along with creative consultant Simon Collins, today launched a remarkably simple and thereby powerful campaign to motivate people to vote in favour of marriage equality in Australia's upcoming postal survey.

Clearly planned well in advance of the survey becoming official yesterday, the campaign, for an organisation called YES Equality Campaign, is smartly constructed to model the exact action people have to take if the vote is to succeed: A wide variety of people make simple statements about giving everyone the same "fair go" as they march purposefully toward a postal box to mail their ballots. The campaign also aims to boost volunteerism for a massive door-to-door campaign. 

1 Kent Street handled creative concept and direction, plus project management and delivery; Hogarth was in charge of production (film, photography, OOH, print and digital); and MediaCom provided media strategy, planning and buying. Sydney’s production community also chipped in to deliver the campaign in a very short space of time, according to WPP AUNZ. The campaign will run across TV (FTA and paid), radio, cinema, outdoor and digital.

“We have 5,500 employees who all care passionately about this issue, and so when we were approached, a group of agencies jumped at the opportunity to work for the YES Equality Campaign and turbo-charge the volunteer effort across the country,” Mike Connaghan, CEO of WPP AUNZ said in a release.

Campaign's view: If the law is going to change, the postal survey will have to overcome a determined anti-equality effort and send a strong signal to politicians, leaving them with no choice but to heed the will of the people. For that to happen, the people will have to get up and send their ballots. So showing everyday Australians literally clutching their ballots as they walk with determination to the postal box is a great choice. The campaign makes equality look like an undeniable movement that everyone should want to be part of. Which, of course, it is. While we normally try to remain dispassionate about whether campaigns succeed, we firmly hope this one does.   

CREDITS

Simon Collins, Creative Consultant: Writer, creative director and film director
Jen Clarke, 1 Kent Street: Campaign project management 
Hogarth Team: Production (film, photography, OOH, print, digital)
MediaCom: Media strategy, planning and buying 

Client
Helen Ross-Browne, Brand and Advertising Director, AME
Kirk Marcolina, Brand and Advertising Directors , AME
Leah Newman, Creative Producer, AME