Industry calls on NSW Government to raise age of criminal responsibility with new campaign from UnLtd
UnLtd, the media, marketing and creative industry’s social purpose organisation, has unveiled a campaign with Raise the Age NSW to call on the government to raise the age of criminal responsibility, via Carat and Tag.
Aiming to educate the public that the current age of criminal responsibility – ten years old – is too young, the new campaign asks the NSW Government to “give children a happier tenth birthday”.
The campaign aims to support Raise the Age NSW – a coalition of more than 130 First Nations, legal, human rights and civil society organisations and community services, charities, peak bodies, and unions.
Marking UnLtd’s first large-scale collaborative campaign on addressing youth disadvantages, it has received support from more than 30 media organisations.
Over $2.3 million worth of pro-bono media has been donated to the campaign so far by Alliance, ARN, ATN, Brandspace, Cartology, GumGum, JCDecaux, JOLT, Mamamia, Motio, NewsCorp, Nine Entertainment, Nova, OA Collective, Ogury, oOh!media, Paramount, QMS, SBS, SCA Radio, Seven, Snapchat, Teads, Tonic, Uber Ads, Val Morgan Group and Yahoo.
“The advertising industry is uniquely positioned to shine a light on injustice, tell stories that need to be told, and advocate on behalf of our most vulnerable children and young people,” said Jade Harley, director of partnerships at the social purpose organisation.
“It’s a disgrace that right here in NSW we are ignoring the evidence from doctors, lawyers, and mental health experts to detain children as young as ten, removing them from their families and their communities. At UnLtd, we work with many of the front-line charities providing early intervention, wrap-around support and programs that are proven to result in better outcomes for kids and communities. It’s been incredible to see so many people and organisations across the industry stand behind this important issue.”
Raise the Age NSW’s campaign manager, Emily Mayo, said having the support of the industry is fantastic. She said most people don’t know that children as young as ten are being arrested and locked up – and stressed this harms kids, and doesn’t truly prevent crime.
“We can do better for children and our community,” she said. “We hope this campaign starts a conversation about how we can make NSW communities safer by investing in services that work and raising the age of criminal responsibility.”
The emotional campaign, spearheaded by Tag, showcases the poor ‘gift’ ten-year-olds are given by the NSW Government.
Caitlin Gregory-Layman, executive manager of people and culture at Tag, said when the agency first met with UnLtd and Raise the Age NSW, they immediately knew they could align with a cause that struck a deep emotional chord.
“During creative development, we kept returning to that critical and vulnerable age of 10, and the ‘gift’ we are giving our ten-year-olds in NSW,” she said. “With this campaign, we saw the opportunity to show there is a better way, and a better gift, for the children of NSW. We hope people are just as emotionally affected as we have been by this issue and turn that emotional investment into real action to Raise the Age here in NSW.”
Frank Carlino, head of investment NSW at Carat, added: “We are especially proud to partner with UnLtd this year on the ‘Raise the Age NSW’ campaign.
“Not only did the campaign hit hard especially for those of us with children but our MD, Harry, also spent a night in a former Youth Incarceration Centre for Bail Out (an UnLtd initiative), where she got a taster of the harrowing ordeal children undergo. Carat has worked closely with UnLtd over the past few years to deliver pro-bono inventory for campaigns such as ‘MOOD Tea’ and ‘Youth Off the Streets’. UnLtd are an absolute force for good and have a team we love working with.
“We’d like to thank our media partners who have helped us deliver over $2.3M in pro-bono inventory across TV, Cinema, Digital, Audio and OOH to raise awareness for this important cause,” he concluded.
To ensure campaign effectiveness, FiftyFive5 also came on board to run qualitative creative testing through focus groups.
Credits:
Creative:
Creative Director: Adam Ibrahim
Art Director: Josella Bray, Morgan Wood
Cinematographer: Joshua Dwyer
First AC: Justin O’Donnell
Photographer: Brendan Jones
Editor: Joshua Dwyer
Design: Chris Vetrisano, Halan Susak
Producer: Elleni MacMillan, Zara Stuut
Account Management: Caitlin Gregory-Layman
Media – Carat:
Managing Director: Harry Jayaweera
Head of Investment: Frank Carlino
Senior Client Director: Jason Brearly
Client Director: Nicholas Noel
Client Executive: Alessandra Arena
Client Associate: Amy Chau
Research – Fiftyfive5:
Estelle Gohil
Rebecca Hitchmough
Bec Biddle
Roger Neyland
Alex Luksich
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the agency beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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topics
Carat
criminal responsibility
Fiftyfive5
NSW Government
raise the age
Raise The Age NSW
Tag
UnLtd
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