• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, February 3, 2022

The debate over access to abortions has gotten so loud that it’s hard for any new thinking to break through. So the American Civil Liberties Union has launched a powerful new campaign, running paid ads that seek to reframe abortion bans as enforced pregnancy.

One spot, which broke on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, parodies pharmaceutical ads. Another highlights the lengths people must now travel to get abortion care. Kate Charles, managing partner and chief strategy officer at Oberland, the agency that developed the ads, explains the new approach.

Marketing Daily: How did you land on the "forced pregnancy" concept?

Kate Charles: The brief was to get people out of their malaise on the issue of reproductive freedom and abortion. And there's been a lot of research that shows people are pretty much set in their beliefs. We knew we couldn't frame it in the usual "pro-life" versus "pro-choice" language. "Life" will always win, and that's an unfair characterization of what's going on.

So we started working with language that flipped the script from "I'm pro-life" to "I'm for forced pregnancy." We want to change the narrative by changing the words we use.

Marketing Daily: The first ad sort of spoofs pharma marketing. Why?

Charles: That was an important decision. Abortions are healthcare. And so, by using that setting and that language -- the doctor's office, the discussion of side effects -- we want to reinforce that.

It's a medical procedure. It's safe, and it's been in our world for decades. So we wanted to put it in that context and show the damage done by limitations, restrictions and laws that prevent pregnant people from getting the healthcare they deserve.

We wanted something shocking and provoking. We wanted people to sit up and say, “Whoa, what was that?”

Marketing Daily: The second one starts with a 12-hour bus ride. What is the goal there?

Charles: This one is much more emotional and meant to rally the folks who are already fired up and want to do something. It illustrates the impact of these restrictions: people having to take time off work to travel very far from home, leaving their children behind. And it's meant to illustrate how pregnant people aren't frustrated about getting an abortion, but at all the barriers that have been put in their way.

Marketing Daily: Where's it running, and how much money is behind this?

Charles: It's part of a seven-figure push from the ACLU, including ads aimed at reuniting families separated at the border. The ads are running in OTT and plenty of social and digital assets.

Marketing Daily: What metric are you using to see if the campaign works?

Charles: We hope that we can get more people to see abortion as healthcare, that the pregnant person is someone who needs healthcare. There is a lot of wiggle room in there, a way for someone to say, “I might not believe in abortion, but it's not my place to take away someone's healthcare or make these decisions for them.”

I'm not asking anyone to change their mind, just begin to believe that people should have access to the healthcare they need.

Marketing Daily: Switching the narrative -- reframing a hot-button issue -- isn't easy. What's the most challenging part?

Charles: For so long, politicians and the media have used this "pro-life" versus "pro-choice" framing, and it's just stuck. So it's about tilting the narrative, packaging things slightly different. When someone says they are pro-life, what that means is that they believe in forced pregnancy -- compelling someone who doesn't want to be pregnant to carry a fetus to term. So this approach feels refreshing and eye-opening.

And it's also important to shift the conversation away from personal belief. In this country, everyone's able to believe what they want. But not everyone should be able to take away the healthcare rights of others.