TimeTo campaign uses eerily quiet offices to highlight danger of sexual harassment

TimeTo, the cross industry campaign to address sexual harassment in advertising and marketing, has launched a new ad featuring real stories from victims set against quiet offices in pandemic times.

The ad shows a montage of eerily empty and quiet office spaces designed to look like the industry places we all work in. As the ad plays, real-life accounts of a diverse range of women and men who have experienced sexual harassment are dubbed over the top.

The ad, created by Lucky Generals, is meant to give the viewer the feeling they are listening to ghosts of past traumatic moments, combined with a chilling prediction of what lies ahead. The stories are anonymised and paraphrased to protect the victims.

Research from TimeTo has found that just under half (49%) of all people in advertising think sexual harassment will be more of an issue now that people are returning to offices.

While instances of sexual harassment in our industry have reduced significantly during the pandemic as industry professionals have worked from home,  organisers of the TimeTo campaign fear that the significant factor in this reduction is simply down to a lack of opportunity to harass.

Examples of stories include “she used to call me at three in the morning after a night out and ask me to come round” and “he asked if I was late because I’d been sucking someone off”.

A red line, a reflection of TimeTo’s “It’s time to draw the line” campaign slogan, travels through the offices leading to the final shot which delivers the title: “Sign your company up for sexual harassment training today.”

Kerry Glazer, chair of AAR and TimeTo, said: “The statistics say it all. 49% of adlanders believe that as we return to work, sexual harassment is likely to return to pre-pandemic levels which is simply unacceptable. And if you’re a business leader, chances are it’s going to start happening again on your watch.

“So much has been said about the desire not to return to the “old normal” and the will to “build back better”. One thing we cannot tolerate is the resumption of historic predatory behaviour. Our world-class training gives businesses a simple cost-effective tool to tackle this invidious issue at its core.”

TimeTo is a collaboration between the Advertising Association, NABS and WACL, and backed by ISBA and the IPA.

The campaign uses real-life stories that may be triggering for some. Anyone affected should contact the NABS Advice Line on 0800 707 6607.