Red Cross and MTV team up for Refugee Week

Australian Red Cross has partnered with MTV Australia to develop an on-air  campaign to encourage understanding and fight discrimination to mark the upcoming Refugee Week. The campaign, entitled ‘Labels’ was one of 10 concepts developed by MTV staff as part of a company-wide initiative.

VIEW THE SPOT: Red Cross Labels lowres.mov

‘Labels’ – the winning idea selected by the Red Cross – was written, produced and directed by MTV’s creative team with the majority of acting roles undertaken by MTV staff, and will be broadcast on MTV Australia and online from Monday 21 June. The 40-second TVC, which is silent aside from background music, shows eight people holding a piece of card with a discrimination or stereotype written onto it.  

Each person then crosses out their ‘label’ and writes a new description on their card – which ranges from ‘son’ to ‘nurse’ to ‘vet’ to ‘girlfriend’ to ‘psychologist’. The tagline is: “If only we could choose our own labels. Discrimination sux” 

‘Labels’ marks the second campaign that the Red Cross and MTV have collaborated on as an MTV company-wide project. ‘Club’ and ‘Dickhead’ were created by MTV’s staff to showcase the Red Cross ‘Save a Mate’ campaign and were broadcast on MTV in February, in line with the festival season in Australia. Australian Red Cross National Manager, Youth and Family Programs, Shaun Hazeldine, says that Australian Red Cross will be involved in an ongoing community education campaign tackling discrimination, as part of its commitment to building respect and understanding between cultures and races. 

Refugee Week, which runs from 20 to 26 June and is marked around the world, is a chance to recognize and celebrate the contribution refugees make to Australian society.  

Credits 

Concept: MTV staff 

Director/Producer – Andy Wallace – MTV Creative 

Director of Photography – Brett Brown 

Production Manager – Marina Younger