Stop Bullying Now

www.stopbullyingnow.com.au

Stop Bullying Now is a program to delivering community service announcements to the public denouncing bullying. The existing program is in essence giving tertiary Film, Television, Screen and Media students an advertising brief to create concepts for commercials (video) to create awareness around bullying, then co-producing the commercials with industry professionals and high school students.

The Aim in 2019 is to continue with the media promotion of the current campaign and elevate the reach by taking it into schools through seminars. These seminars will contain the content of the campaign as well as focus on several of the recommendations from the QLD Anti-Cyberbullying Taskforce.

Through Their Eyes

This project is unique due to the fact that it is created by the students, it is created by the young people who have the most relevant and up to date experience on the issue of bullying in today's world.

Getting the anti-bullying message across can be very difficult without the effective use of streaming devices such as smart phones, tablets, computers and televisions. This is a message that is tailored for the eyes it needs to reach, because it is made by those same eyes. Cyberbullying is an enormous problem facing society, and statistics have shown that it usually originates in the playground and follows the victims 24 hours a day. These messages are designed to infiltrate the online world through apps, browsers and social media platforms.

The Stop Bullying Now project and subsequent program is designed to provoke thought first and foremost. And when the audience also discovers that the campaigns were created by young students, another level of impact is achieved.

After the release of Stop Bullying Now in November 2018 the commercials received extremely high profile support online. The QLD Department of Education, Dolly’s Dream Foundation and TAFE QLD were amongst the largest supporters endorsing the project with Social Media posts and partaking in media interviews discussing the project and the topic.

James Reyne ‘Reckless’

In 2018-19, one of Australia’s most prominent musical artists lent his support to the project in a very big way. Stop Bullying Now secured the publishing rights to the classic hit ‘Reckless’ to be used as the soundtrack for the 4 commercials in the campaign.

Rarely if ever has this song been used in marketing campaigns and it has added enormous weight to the campaign, lifting both the profile of the project and the impact of the Anti-Bullying message.

In-School Seminars

In order to further deliver the message and promote thought as well as live discussion we believe that this project will be more effective in fulfilling it’s objectives by presenting 1 hour In-School Seminars to varying age demographics.

The seminars include:

An introduction to the project and screening of campaign commercials

Outline and reaction discussion on Social and Emotional Learning

Open Forum discussion around technology, mobile device usage and the future.

Learning Outcomes

? The commercials being written, directed and produced in partnership with professionals, creates a much needed ‘credit’ for the students involved. These credits are what leads to employment opportunities in the industry.

? Hands on work experience with industry professionals on a broadcast commercial.

? Conceptualizing a commercial to create awareness and deliver the anti-bullying message in itself makes both the tertiary and high school students think differently and far more in depth about the issue.

Currently both the Stop Bullying Now and Stamp Out Bullying campaigns have reached well in excess of 1 million people over the past two years with no funding or budget.