Create Not Hate (CNH) was founded in 2007 to give young Black people from working class backgrounds, experience in the creative industries.

Thirteen years on, Create Not Hate 2020 launched, the second iteration of the original CNH mentorship and training programme, launched on the back of the global spotlight on racial injustice and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The programme connects under-represented young people with mentors from the industry, offers training in the creative process and invites participants to respond to open creative briefs. The aim is to increase diversity which is sorely lacking in advertising and the creative industries. We’re using creativity to bring about a revolution in the industry’s make-up and drive positive change.

We wanted to tackle racism from the perspective of the people who experience it everyday and so we co-created a campaign with young people for whom prejudice is a lived experience. We approached London councils and schools with a high percentage of free school meals and we worked with hard-to-reach young people and NEETs (not in education employment or training). These young people were trained by leading figures from the worlds of advertising, TV, film, design and digital through Create Not Hate to create films and design billboard posters, T-shirts etc.

Create Not Hate’s ‘Check Your Prejudice’ campaign was conceived by some of our young CNH participants who wanted to bring to life the stereotyping they’ve faced their whole lives. The campaign includes two short films, conceived by Emmanual Areoye, a 17-year-old from Camberwell, that challenge negative stereotypes about race.

The campaign aimed to drive awareness of unconscious biases and internalised prejudice. From micro-aggressions to disproportionate stop-and-search rates of young Black men and police brutality, systemic racism is multifaceted and complex; we wanted to address it in a creative way.

While many people don’t see themselves as racist, they fail to recognise their own subconscious misconceptions. We aimed to educate people and help them better understand this critical issue.

Through Create Not Hate, we enlisted the young people who are most affected by these misconceptions to co-create a powerful anti-racism campaign that would achieve a global reach.

The campaign received a hugely positive outpouring from the public on social media and endorsements from celebrities who pointed to the dire need for work like this to be shown in the wider world. These celebrities included US comedian Loni Love, who shared the campaign on her social channels to millions of followers.

In eight weeks, we launched CNH as a Community Interest Company, secured exponential reach, widespread industry support and a full media plan.

Our Create Not Hate programme gave creative briefs to over a hundred young people and held workshops to train them on all aspects of the creative process and production. Top agencies and production companies including Mother, Ridley Scott Creative Group, Havas and industry leaders, including Vicki Maguire, Luke Scott, Karen Blackett, Dave Dye, Paul Jordan and Raoul Shah, provided support, mentorship and training.

‘Check Your Prejudice’ got widespread national media coverage, including Sky and ITV News, and the campaign, which spanned film, OOH, merchandise, print, was given free media placements from Channel 4, Spotify, Time Out, Ocean Outdoor and the Financial Times. WeTransfer donated a wallpaper resulting in 70 million additional views.

And we did all of this under strict Covid guidelines, ensuring everyone’s safety.