ARL Kangaroos swear for White Ribbon Day

At the Rugby League Four Nations Series Final this Saturday 13 November, a commercial containing ‘strong language’ will feature the Australian Kangaroos and their coach Tim Sheens swearing in the name of a good cause.

The team has thrown their weight behind the ‘I Swear’ campaign for anti-violence charity White Ribbon Australia, which features the team swearing not to tolerate violence against women.

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The commercial was specially created for the Four Nations Series and has appeared on the scoreboards at the stadiums during the Series. In addition, the White Ribbon has featured on the Kangaroos jerseys to show their support of the cause.

To draw attention to White Ribbon Day on November 25, the Australian Kangaroos ‘I Swear’ commercial is the second launched this year from the White Ribbon Foundation featuring prominent Australian men asking Aussie blokes to swear an oath to “never to commit, never to excuse, never to remain silent about violence against women” by visiting www.myoath.com.au. This year the target is one million Aussie men.

The broader ‘Swear & Wear’ campaign then encourages people to wear a white ribbon or wristband to show the world that they’ve stepped up and sworn. These can be purchased for $2 each online at www.whiteribbon.org.au and are also available from Suzanne Grae, The Body Shop, Lifeline Stores, AHG and The Salvos Stores.

Joining the movement to get 1 million Aussie blokes to Swear & Wear this year include Keith Urban, Gerry Harvey, Rove, Hazem El Masri, Alan Feels, Adam Goodes, Dicko, Kochie, Hamish & Andy, Billy Birmingham, Wil Anderson, Michael Long, Lt gen Ken Gillespie (Head of the Army), Lars Rasmussen (Google’s premier geek), and more.

“On White Ribbon Day particularly, we call on all men to swear the oath,” said White Ribbon chairman Andrew O’Keefe. “Let’s face it, swearing comes naturally to most Aussie men. We swear when we’re laughing, we swear when we’re mad, we swear whether we’re elated or deflated. But this is an opportunity to swear to make a difference.”

One in three Australian women will be a victim of physical or sexual violence or abuse in her lifetime. They are the mothers, sisters, daughters or friends of men across Australia. Men who take the oath will help to change this statistic.  Only when men take the lead, to encourage change in attitudes and behaviours of other men towards women, will violence and abuse towards women become unacceptable in our communities.

CREDITS: The production company was Swarm Imagery (producer Trish Knapp and director Dana-Lee Mierowsky) with creative work by Mike Newman from BRANDNEWMAN and Simone Bartley from Seizmic.