The Unacceptable Acceptance Letter campaign launched today with this story printed in @thecrimson. #dontacceptrape pic.twitter.com/F5D4iwPSik
— Laura Petruccelli (@LauraPastacheli) April 16, 2016
Over the weekend, readers of the Harvard Crimson were treated to a strong campaign against campus sexual assault. Using the claim that 1 in 5 young women will be sexually assaulted, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Prettybird advertised “Unacceptable Acceptance Letters.”
The ad is a mock acceptance letter from the university apologizing to a student for not doing more after a rape. It also leads to the Don’t Accept Rape website which invites students to “Demand accountability. Tell your college or university that you #DontAcceptRape.” The website features videos of students getting into college only to then receive such a letter.
The videos “were shot on iPhones by directors Ben and Alex Brewer to make them look real,” Adweek explained.
The Don’t Accept Rape website notes that the videos “tap into the trend of teens posting acceptance videos on social media. The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness of this issue and inspire students, parents and the public to demand their colleges and universities act to protect their students.”
The ad implores students, “If they accept you, don’t accept this.”
“The cover-ups are just as unacceptable as the attacks, and the campaign aims to hold these colleges accountable. We hope that people will take action through social media,” GS&P Executive Creative Director Margaret Johnson said.
The creators also hope students and their parents will watch The Hunting Ground, a 2015 documentary that Johnson and Prettybird Co-Founder and President Kerstin Emhof were involved with. Lady Gaga’s song in the film, “Til It Happens to You,” was nominated for an Academy Award.
The film has received sharp criticism for bias and editing facts on Wikipedia, with Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) particularly drawing attention to the film’s flaws, which include using false rape statistics and discredited testimonies.
Ella Taylor for Variety includes the film as one of her least favorites of 2015, noting it “plays fast and loose with statistics and our sympathy with victims of campus sexual assault.” The “death-defying leaps of logic on the basis of skimpy and distorted evidence … does violence to both the legitimate fight for women’s rights and the honorable cause of advocacy filmmaking,” she continued.
The ad campaign is a way to get people to discuss campus assault and raise sympathies. One way to talk about it is to question if this is the best method, particularly in “play[ing] to our sympathy,” especially with the issues of The Hunting Ground. If campus sexual assault doesn’t decrease as a result of the campaign, what are students to do? Not go to college? The tactics about raising such awareness during what should be a happy time for students do raise questions.
