White Ribbon Australia has launched a national primary prevention campaign, ‘Not Perfect, Better’, designed to shift the conversation around men’s role in preventing gender-based violence – from the earliest stages. Developed to coincide with Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month in May, the campaign takes an ‘always on’ approach to the small changes that men and boys can take to help Aussie men be ‘better’ for themselves, their partners, their kids and their mates.
Co-designed in close collaboration with impact agency Anthologie and males across Australia, the campaign encourages honest reflection, everyday action, and meaningful engagement beyond men being ‘perfect’ – to men being better.
“This campaign is about lowering the barrier to participation while raising the bar on accountability, with a message that is empathetic, inclusive, and action-oriented. We need urgent action on gender-based violence, but we’re not going to get there by blaming and isolating all men,” said Ciara Lowe-Thiedeman, director marketing and communications at White Ribbon Australia.
The campaign builds on insights from White Ribbon’s 2024 #WeListen initiative which revealed that many men felt uncertain about how to engage with friends, partners and family, fearing imperfection would disqualify them from participating in the conversation. This confusion often led to fatigue and paralysis at the exact moments that we need men and boys to stand up and model better behaviour. Notably, the strategic work was also supported with workshops involving several men from the WA creative industry including Andrew Tinning, John Linton, Elliot Ramsey and Dean Hunt.
The Not Perfect, Better campaign is supported by an ever-growing digital toolkit, with practical resources and real-life stories that encourage and equip men to take action in their everyday lives.
“We’ve all done or thought things we regret at one stage or another. Every guy we heard from, from violent offenders to kids in schools, expressed a desire to be better for themselves and others around them,” said Josh Edge, executive creative director at Anthologie. “We know that there’s a real issue with clear, direct (and damaging!) messaging being pumped at Aussie men from the manosphere, from culture, from the way they have been brought up and the things they’ve been exposed to. This is a chance for us men to pause, take a breath and refocus on the things that we can do better rather than try to adhere to some mythical ‘perfect man’ stereotype”.
Anthologie’s role included strategy, messaging and creative direction, including the design of campaign assets, digital templates, media partner collateral and stakeholder engagement tools. “We really wanted this ongoing work with White Ribbon to be an opportunity for ongoing impact, not just a set-and-forget social campaign or website update,” said Amy Sutton, founder and managing director at Anthologie. “The openness of everyday men to tell us how they feel and what they want to empower them has been a really humbling and inspiring journey for all of us.”
The campaign marks a significant step in building inclusive and scalable change giving men not just a reason to show up, but a roadmap for how to start.
