Bans Off My Body is a body- and sex-positive campaign about claiming your body as your own — a rallying cry for autonomy and equality. It expresses what’s at stake in this moment when access to safe, legal abortion and other reproductive health care lie under assault.
We aimed to:
Elevate our position and brand against these negative and harmful attacks against abortion and bodily autonomy;
Promote and build momentum around support for abortion care access;
Provide current and future supporters with clear ways they can stand up and take action;
Insert our messaging into the public narrative to own the conversation;
Collect 500,000 petition signatures to be delivered to lawmakers later at the top of 2020.
We know that nearly 80% of voters want to protect Roe v. Wade and that there is no state in this country where making abortion illegal is popular. Yet politicians continue to attack abortion rights and severely limit access, specifically among Black and Latinx communities. An unprecedented number of extreme abortion bans are being enacted across the country — in states like Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi — many of which don’t include exceptions for rape or incest, could jail doctors simply for providing care, and could allow the state to investigate women’s miscarriages. This is an attempt to ban abortion outright.
Playing off the terms “hands off” and the abortion bans, we created the Bans Off My Body campaign. We sought to engage with current brand supporters and raise the alarm to the many Americans who believe abortion should be legal and accessible. This integrated campaign focused on publicizing the support for bodily autonomy and mobilizing people to protect abortion access.
We launched Bans Off My Body as a responsive campaign against the abortion bans that were sweeping the country in 2019. For launch we:
Ran digital billboards in Times Square, and a six-figure online ad buy;
Posted graphics on our social channels, and inserted our campaign assets and hashtag #BansOffMyBody in the national dialogue;
Developed a campaign website, BansOffMyBody.org, which allows users to see abortion restrictions around the country and directs them to ways they can take action.
We continued the campaign work with proactive manufactured media moments to keep our issue of abortion access front and center:
Partnered with artists to create a cultural moment — culminating in an ad in Billboard magazine signed by nearly 140 artists like Billie Eilish, Lizzo, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Paulina Rubio — which kicked off a weekend of digital postings by artists who signed the ad and encouraged other artists like Selena Gomez to engage with Bans Off My Body.
Landed an exclusive interview with Billboard magazine about the campaign, and had stories in other outlets including RollingStone, MTV News, ABC, BBC, Variety, Pitchfork and CNN Entertainment;
Collaborated with jewelry designer Sophie Ratner who created a Bans Off necklace, which was worn by Lizzo at the MTV VMAs, Beanie Feldstein at the Toronto Film Festival, and Jenny Slate and Alison Brie on their social channels;
Joined musicians on their tours to promote the Bans Off message at their shows and speak with their fans about local abortion access and restrictions, providing actionable ways they could protect and expand access. We also engaged at on-the-ground events with Black and Latinx audiences, such as Essence Festival, People en Español Festival, Beautycon, Music Midtown, and Made In America;
Seeded Bans Off My Body merchandise for staff and supporters;
Ran a Spanish-language companion effort: Es Mío, Yo Decido, which peaked during Hispanic Heritage Month and engaged artists, such as Judy Reyes, Justina Machado, Gina Torres, Amara la Negra, Diane Guerrero and Selenis Leyva.
Bans Off My Body allowed us to educate audiences about abortion bans and provide examples of how to get involved. We created a space for artists to engage on a topic they cared about, and made it clear to anti-abortion lawmakers that we will not sit silently as they threaten our rights.
Engaged on digital channels in a major way. In the first week, we saw over 100 times the typical traffic to our website and content on owned channels delivered almost 1.9M impressions and nearly 112k engagements. By the end of 2019, our owned content had generated 10.5M+ impressions and 617k+ engagements. To date, the hashtag #BansOffMyBody has been used over 12,400 times, resulting in 172.5M impressions.
Explosive follower growth on our social media accounts in the first month of the campaign.
Motivated abortion access supporters, collecting and delivering over 522,000 petition signatures (and counting!) to anti-abortion lawmakers.
Nearly 140 artists signed the Billboard ad banding together for abortion rights, and 63 artists posted about the campaign, reaching more than 125.6M followers with 505.1K engagements across social platforms across the launch weekend. This campaign created an ongoing funnel for activation with artists and influencers.
Joined musicians on tour, including The National, Maggie Rogers, Sleater-Kinney, Heart, The Regrettes, and X Ambassadors, activating at 47 concerts in 19 states to discuss local abortion access.
Garnered more than 20 stories (including RollingStone, MTV News and CNN), providing an estimated 78 million media impressions.
