Changing Narratives

M&C Saatchi has joined forces with London-based youth organisation RISE.365 and Clear Channel to launch a thought-provoking out-of-home campaign called Changing Narratives.

RISE.365 is dedicated to supporting young people in reaching their goals. The organisation provides a voice for the youth of today and works with them to become the future leaders of tomorrow.

Many young black men experience bias daily, with people jumping to conclusions based on damaging preconceived narratives about them. The new campaign seeks to challenge these everyday biases held in UK society.

M&C Saatchi has collaborated closely with the young men of RISE.365 to create the campaign, from insights and strategy, through to idea development.

Shaun Okoh, a Senior Strategist at M&C Saatchi, conducted in-depth interviews with Femi, Daniel, Ryan, Lucas, Razaq, Solomon, and Sam about their experiences with bias. Each young man had memories of bad judgements (by others) leading to negative experiences (for them). Whether it was being told their mixed heritage (black and white) made them more tolerable, being randomly stopped and searched by the police for the first time as a scared 12-year-old or being aggressively arrested at 16 for a crime someone else committed, the campaign draws on a wealth of negative experiences.

The campaign depicts negative narratives as a series of book covers. Each cover features a young RISE.365 volunteer paired with a title based upon real judgement they have unfortunately experienced. These shocking titles were taken directly from conversations between the young men and M&C Saatchi.

The young men on the book covers are shown reacting to the negative book titles. These are genuine reactions from the young men’s perspectives.

The book covers themselves were designed and meticulously aged to feel outdated, like the biased views that are too often held.

The initiative aims to educate the broader community and encourage people to reflect on their perspectives, to help us move towards a more inclusive and fair society.