Gender Equality is one of the key parts of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We believe that none of the other goals can be achieved without gender equality and a key to achieving this goal is to eradicate sexual harassment.

Campaigns about sexual harassment are traditionally done by supporting the victim. But support does not stop harassment from happening.

The “Yes We All” campaign was created to highlight a new perspective: the role of bystanders. The campaign sought to lower the threshold for bystanders to intervene and change the social norm, as well as to break the tacit acceptance associated with various forms of sexual harassment.

The aim of the campaign was to raise awareness of sexual harassment, its forms, and consequences, and to make bystanders know the importance of their own intervention. In the big picture, the goal was to encourage bystanders to intervene in situations of sexual harassment.

The core of the campaign was simple: we can all intervene. Everyone has a role to play in situations of sexual harassment – that includes the bystander, who can intervene and stop the harassment from happening.

Instead of traditional top-down preaching, it forms a positive call to action: everyone has a role to play, and the bystander cannot stand idly on the sidelines. At the same time, the campaign hashtag #KylläKaikkiMeistä (#YesWeAll) acted as a counter to the #NotAllMen conversation on social media.

The campaign included a video that provided a space for men to express their thoughts about the harassment to other men. The campaign faces were men who talked about sexual harassment from their own perspective, when they failed to intervene, and what they would do differently now and opened up the peer pressure that can make intervening difficult. At last, men took part in the discussion.

The core data gathering utilized Finland’s equality barometer. In addition, experts in work against sexual violence and young people representing the main target group participated in the planning.

As the problem is still exceptionally gendered we aimed the campaign at men aged 16-30, who find harassment problematic but may not have intervened or rarely do so when confronted with sexual harassment situations.

Eight well-known Finnish men, representing a wide range of backgrounds, ages, and professions throughout society, were selected as the campaign's messengers so that the campaign would reach a large and diverse group of people. The campaign faces were national team footballer Joona Toivio, rising rap artist Melo, tv celebrity chef Akseli Herlevi, successful e-athlete Mike Lanki, and popular social media influencers MolyBros and Blokess.

Selections of channels and campaign faces were made by analyzing social media data, and research on the most influential Finns among the target group.

In the campaign videos, the campaign faces spoke about sexual harassment in their own words, from their own experiences, and how they want to address harassment.

The video content was widely used in the campaign on a variety of channels, from YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and other social media to online commercials and street-side advertising in places where young men spend time and pass by so that the target audience could see the campaign content in many different ways. In addition to video content, image advertising was created to summarise the main messages and encourage sharing.

The active campaign period lasted two weeks: the first was supported by television spots and PR actions, and the second was by discussions with social media influencers and media pitching. The campaign material was also distributed to a wide network of expert organizations to encourage different stakeholders to join the conversation.

An online debate erupted as soon as the campaign began. The number of social media conversations on the subject increased by more than 400 %. Publications and the organic distribution alone reached up to 3.3 million views. The Finnish Minister for Equality, among others, shared the publications.

On the launch day, the client spoke on the nation's largest television and radio channels in every news broadcast. In addition, the campaign appeared in an extensive article in Helsingin Sanomat, the country's largest newspaper, YleX, the most popular radio channel for young people, and the @ylekioski-Instagram account, which reaches more than 70,000 young people. The estimated earned media coverage alone is 4.5 million Finns, while the size of the main target group is 600 000 Finns.

A post-campaign effectiveness survey (n = 2,171) revealed that over a fifth of respondents said their attitudes toward sexual harassment had changed in the past month.