Think Before You Speak (campaign) - The Campaign

The Campaign

Kevin Jennings, who is openly gay and is the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, has experienced bullying himself at school and has hoped for this campaign for over ten years. The campaign aims to reduce homophobic slang among youth, and educate parents and teachers on how to create a safe space for LGBT teens. GLSEN and the Ad Council have reported that over half of all students have heard homophobic remarks being made often at school, and 9 out of 10 LGBT students have been harassed at school over the last year. The campaign encourages students to get involved by starting a Gay-Straight Alliance, educating their peers, and working to create a safer environment for LGBT students. This is the first campaign on GLBT issues since the Ad Council was founded in 1942. The campaign uses the slogan "When you say ‘That’s so gay,’ do you realize what you say? Knock it off." Previously the council has run other anti-discrimination campaigns like "A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” for the United Negro College Fund, and "Expect the best from a girl and that’s what you’ll get" to promote gender equality.

GLSEN spent approximately $2 million dollars to produce the campaign, which was released along with GLSEN's 2007 School Climate Survey. It includes three television public service announcements (PSAs), six print PSAs and three radio PSAs. The ad was the first ever campaign by the Ad Council, "which directs and coordinates public service campaigns on behalf of Madison Avenue and the media industry", to address any GLBTQ issues. The campaign was done pro bono by the New York office of Arnold Worldwide.

In researching the possibility that public service directors, who decide which pro bono campaigns their media outlet will run, they found only a "very small percentage" who would not run the campaign but mainly due to their audience was much older. They also tested how to deliver the messages to "tough and media savvy" kids "that speaks to young people in a tone they do not deem patronizing or condescending." Their goal became "to show the situation in a new light to point out this language can be hurtful and let the kids make their own decisions."

After the first year of the campaign had been reached, the second harder-hitting phase addressing the consequences, "sometimes life-or-death", of anti-gay language was launched. The first phase focussed on showing the television PSAs to get young people to see how their language can be hurtful, the ads combined for "more than $9 million worth of media exposure for the campaign's message since its launch in October 2008." The second phase will be more viral and enable people to embed banners and materials on websites and in their social media use. All the materials are downloadable from the campaign site. The Ad Council reports a high recognition of the television spots among teens (41% of teens aged 13–16 nationwide reporting that they have seen or heard at least one PSA) and a recent survey conducted by the Council shows "significant shifts in key attitudes and behaviors regarding the use of anti-LGBTQ slurs." Another downloadable feature is a meter that tracks the occurrence of common LGBTQ slurs such as "fag" and "dyke" "in real time—on the popular micro-blogging site Twitter."

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