In a post-MeToo world, Australia is leading the way by passing progressive Affirmative Consent Laws. However, in film and TV a lack of consent was still being depicted as ‘romantic’ or ‘humourous’ and as a result, two-thirds of Australians couldn’t define what sexual consent is.

In short, this widespread depiction was out of step with changes to the law.

So TBWA\Sydney and Consent Labs – Australia’s leading consent education experts – launched #ClassifyConsent, a campaign for the first-ever classification (“C”) to call out lack of consent.

Just like with a “violence” classification, the simple “C” informs viewers of “lack of consent” in content before they watch. But it’s also the first classification that turns entertainment into education each time it’s used.

We launched by exposing the lack of consent in famous film scenes and shared the videos on TikTok and Instagram. All comms led to a site that provided a consent education toolkit, a growing list of films that contain ‘lack of consent’.

We are working with The Australian Classification Board to implement this classification across film and television in Australia.