Influencers urge men to challenge sexist behaviour

Men are being urged to challenge their friends' poor behaviour towards women in a new media campaign.

For the second time, Police Scotland is targeting men directly to encourage them to act on sexist and misogynistic actions.

The follow-up to the award-winning "That Guy" campaign features four "influencers", including a footballer and former rugby player.

They discuss what they can do to help each other behave better.

Launched last October, the first phase of the campaign was widely praised.

The video, which featured men outlining a number of scenarios, from getting a woman drunk to making an inappropriate approach on social media, was watched six million times, won 10 national and international awards and attracted widespread publicity.

Police Scotland believe it was the most successful marketing campaign ever run by a UK police force.

The second phase takes a different tack - with four men sitting in a bar, talking about challenging the behaviour of other men.

Described by the police as influencers, the men are Alistair Heather, a writer and presenter, podcaster Sean McDonald, Ben Atiga - an Edinburgh rugby coach and former All Black, and footballer and teacher Danny Denholm.

He said calling out men in front of their friends does not always work. Instead the campaign recommends a private approach.

"For me personally - if someone was to come to me in front of all my pals and say your behaviour was creepy, that behaviour was misogynistic, in front of all the boys, I would feel mortified and defensive," he said.

"Rather than doing it in front of the rest of the group maybe bring them in and say listen, that behaviour there wasn't great.

"They'd maybe be more willing to listen to it. I'd be more willing to listen to it. So I think it's the way we go about it."

The advert is armed at men aged between 18 and 35 and once again, is not branded as a police campaign. The theory is that challenging sexist and misogynistic behaviour can chip away at a culture which can lead to sexual offending.

The new "That guy" ad features four "influencers" talking to each other in a bar about having conversations with friends when their behaviour causes concern

Malcolm Graham, deputy chief constable of Police Scotland, said: "The responsibility is on men to change what's happening, not on women. It is about creating an environment where men don't tolerate the derogatory treatment of women.

"We are not saying all men who have conversations or take actions that are derogatory are going to go on and become serious sexual offenders, but what we are saying is it creates an environment where some of those offences can be permitted or more likely to happen.

"We want to make sure that every man in the country has the opportunity, the skills and the information to appropriately understand the impact of that and to challenge that behaviour."

"That Guy" is not expected to change things overnight.

The first phase has not been accompanied by a reduction in sexual offending. Between April and June this year, reports of recent rapes - offences committed within the previous 12 months - reached a six-year high. The police believe that is down to more victims having the confidence to come forward.

Sandy Brindley, chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, believes the significant increase in reported rapes is due to increased confidence but said it was also possible that more assaults were taking place.

She said: "What the campaign is trying to do is tackle the low-level acceptance of certain attitudes towards women that I think does lead to rape and does lead to much more serious behaviour.

"We need action to target the perpetrators but it is absolutely crucial to target these low-level hostilities or problematic attitudes towards women because if we don't' we are not going to tackle why rape is so prevalent in Scotland.

"It's overdue, it is welcome and it is a great start in challenging attitudes."

Danny Denholm said he hoped the campaign would make a difference.

"I think it is just being proactive and stopping it early doors and hopefully change that culture before it progresses and gets to an extremely dangerous stage."