Advertising Industry Unites to Raise the Age of Criminal Responsibility in NSW

UnLtd, in partnership with Carat and Tag, have launched a new campaign with Raise the Age NSW to call on the NSW government to raise the age of criminal responsibility.

The campaign aims to educate the public that the age of criminal responsibility in NSW is 10 and that is too young.

Emily Mayo, campaign manager for Raise the Age NSW said, “It’s wonderful to have the media and advertising industry supporting this important campaign. Many people don’t know that children as young as ten are being arrested and locked up every day. This harms kids – and doesn’t prevent crime. We can do better for children and our community. 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, created by Tag, asks the government to give children a happier tenth birthday.

Caitlin Gregory-Layman, executive manager people and culture at Tag commented, “When we initially met with Raise the Age NSW and UnLtd, and saw the evidence, we immediately knew we could align our incredible creative talent with a cause that struck a deep emotional chord while making a massive impact. 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. 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.”

Raise the Age NSW is a coalition of more than 130 First Nations, legal, human rights and civil society organisations and community services, charities, peak bodies, and unions. The campaign, created by Tag and with media by Carat, is supported by over 30 media organisations.

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.”

To ensure the campaign message is as effective as possible, FiftyFive5 research came on board to run some qualitative creative testing through a focus group.

Estelle Gohil, partner, head of qualitative at Fiftyfive5, part of Accenture Song said, “A great demonstration of tight collaboration between qualitative research and creative to land true effectiveness. The Tag team created a powerful and emotive platform, however the call to action was initially unclear. A simple and quick bit of qualitative research – deployed with moderator sensitivity due to the difficult nature of the topic - was all it took to sharpen and tighten the comms, so the great campaign Tag created lands powerfully in the hearts and minds of people across NSW.”

The campaign is UnLtd’s first large-scale collaboration campaign focusing on addressing the root causes of youth disadvantage.

Jade Harley, director of partnerships at UnLtd said, “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. 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.”

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.

To find out more about Raise the Age NSW, please visit: https://raisetheagensw.org.au/