B.C. Construction Association's Don't Be A Tool campaign used animated construction tool characters to confront bullying, hazing, and sexual harassment on
ARCHIVEB.C. Construction Association Tackles Worksite Harassment With Don't Be A Tool
"Don't Be A Tool" is a 2019 animated film campaign created by agency Rethink for the B.C. Construction Association, launched during B.C. Construction Month to confront bullying, hazing, and sexual harassment on Canadian construction worksites by casting familiar hand tools as characters in relatable workplace scenarios.
The campaign launched on April 2, 2019, and comprised three animated films alongside social media assets and posters, as documented by Builderscode Ca and adsoftheworld.com. The creative device was deliberate: by anthropomorphising construction tools, Rethink gave the B.C. Construction Association a vehicle that could demonstrate harmful workplace behaviour without placing any individual worker in an accusatory spotlight. The result was a format that felt accessible to the tradespeople it needed to reach across the province of British Columbia, and beyond.
The campaign did not operate in isolation. It functioned as the public communications arm of the Builders Code, a baseline code of conduct established by the B.C. Construction Association to set enforceable standards of workplace behaviour for British Columbia's construction sector, as reported by builderscode.ca and reminetwork.com. In Canada, the construction workforce represents one of the country's largest industrial labour pools, and the province of British Columbia alone employed approximately 180,000 people in the sector at the time of the campaign's launch, according to the B.C. Construction Association and cited by bccassn.xpr.cloud. The Builders Code gave employers a practical framework to adopt, and Don't Be A Tool gave that framework cultural visibility. Clapboard Score: 63/100.
The campaign's objectives were threefold: raise awareness of bullying and sexual harassment as systemic issues inside the construction industry, shift workplace behaviour norms in a non-threatening and engaging way, and drive employer adoption of the Builders Code across British Columbia. It represented a new, issue-led communications direction for the B.C. Construction Association, departing from conventional industry promotional messaging, as noted by clapboard.com.
The B.C. Construction Association grounded the Don't Be A Tool campaign in a year of original research. BCCA and the Construction Workforce Equity Project conducted a year-long study that identified bullying, hazing, and sexual harassment as recurring, documented problems in the construction industry across Canada, as reported by builderscode.ca and adsoftheworld.com. That evidence base gave the creative brief a precise human problem to solve rather than a general awareness goal.
Lisa Stevens, COO of the B.C. Construction Association and architect of the Builders Code, described the campaign's strategic intent as designing something "simple" and "engaging" that could demonstrate the need for change "in a non-threatening way," as quoted by bccassn.xpr.cloud. Stevens further stated the campaign's goal was to "spark some productive conversations and ultimately lead employers to adopt the Builders Code," according to Bccassn Xpr Cloud. That two-stage objective — shift attitudes, then drive institutional action — informed every creative decision Rethink made.
The animated film format addressed a specific strategic obstacle. Direct, documentary-style portrayals of harassment risk alienating the very audience whose behaviour needs to change. Competing approaches to occupational safety communication, including more conventional poster-and-compliance campaigns used across Canadian worksites, tend to produce passive acknowledgement rather than genuine conversation. By contrast, animation allowed Rethink to portray genuine workplace harassment scenarios with enough narrative distance that tradespeople could recognise the behaviour without feeling personally indicted. Morgan Tierney, Managing Partner at Rethink, noted the competitive creative landscape that surrounded this type of public interest work, according to Heavyequipmentguide Ca. In British Columbia, women represented approximately five percent of the construction workforce at the time of the campaign, according to bccassn.com, a figure that underscored the structural gender equity problem the Builders Code and the Don't Be A Tool campaign together sought to address.
Rethink built the Don't Be A Tool campaign around three animated films, each placing anthropomorphised construction tools in recognisable worksite situations involving bullying, hazing, or sexual harassment. The creative logic was straightforward: tools are the shared cultural currency of every tradesperson in British Columbia's construction industry, and giving them human voices and intentions made the uncomfortable subject matter approachable without trivialising it.
The production delivered three distinct animated assets, each engineered to circulate on social media and in employer-facing settings as part of the broader Builders Code rollout, as documented by builderscode.ca and adsoftheworld.com. The character design prioritised legibility over stylistic complexity. Tools were rendered with enough personality to carry narrative arcs — moments of peer pressure, inappropriate comments, and bystander silence — while remaining clearly symbolic rather than documentary. This tonal calibration is where the campaign earns its strategic value: it required tradespeople to project their own experience onto the characters rather than resist a message directed at them.
Lisa Stevens of the B.C. Construction Association described the intended effect as demonstrating the need for change "in a non-threatening way," as quoted by bccassn.xpr.cloud, and the animation format was the primary craft tool that made that positioning achievable. The campaign also extended beyond film into social media assets and printed posters, ensuring the Don't Be A Tool visual language reached worksites where screen-based consumption was impractical, as reported by builderscode.ca. Production credits for the animated films beyond the Rethink agency attribution and the named agency leadership are not fully detailed in publicly available documentation. Chris Atchison, President of the B.C. Construction Association, stated at launch that he expected the approximately 180,000 tradespeople in British Columbia's construction workforce to recognise real-life situations within the campaign's scenarios, according to bccassn.xpr.cloud — a measure of creative authenticity that the production team clearly prioritised.
ARCHIVEVerified post-campaign performance metrics for Don't Be A Tool in the form of independently audited reach, engagement, or behaviour-change data are not comprehensively available in public documentation. What is documented is the campaign's structural integration with the Builders Code, which provides a framework for assessing real-world impact beyond conventional advertising metrics.
The Builders Code, as reported by builderscode.ca, was established as a baseline code of conduct for British Columbia's construction sector, and employer adoption of that code was the stated conversion objective of the Don't Be A Tool campaign. The campaign's three animated films, social assets, and posters were distributed during B.C. Construction Month in April 2019, a period of heightened industry engagement that maximised earned attention from employers and trade associations across the province, as noted by reminetwork.com, which covered the launch under dedicated editorial coverage.
From a structural effectiveness standpoint, the campaign demonstrates several conditions associated with durable public interest communication. The animated film format reduced defensiveness in a traditionally resistant audience. The Builders Code gave employers a tangible next step beyond passive awareness. And the grounding in a year of original research by BCCA and the Construction Workforce Equity Project, as reported by builderscode.ca, meant the creative brief reflected genuine sector intelligence rather than assumed cultural insight. In Canada's construction industry, where occupational safety communication has historically prioritised physical hazard over interpersonal behaviour, the Don't Be A Tool campaign marked a measurable shift in the category's communications ambition. The campaign's Clapboard Score of 63/100 reflects strong strategic rationale and creative originality offset by limited independently verified performance data in the public record.
Don't Be A Tool is a 2019 animated film campaign created by Rethink for the B.C. Construction Association. It used anthropomorphised construction tool characters to address bullying, hazing, and sexual harassment on Canadian worksites. The campaign launched on April 2, 2019, during B.C. Construction Month, as documented by builderscode.ca.
Rethink chose animation to make workplace harassment scenarios approachable without alienating the audience. Casting construction tools as characters gave tradespeople narrative distance from the subject matter, reducing defensiveness. Lisa Stevens of BCCA described the goal as demonstrating the need for change in a non-threatening way, as quoted by bccassn.xpr.cloud.
The Builders Code is a baseline code of conduct for British Columbia's construction sector, established by the B.C. Construction Association. Don't Be A Tool served as the public communications campaign driving employer adoption of the Code. The connection was direct: the campaign's stated goal was to spark conversations and lead employers to adopt the Builders Code, per bccassn.xpr.cloud.
The B.C. Construction Association reported approximately 180,000 people working in British Columbia's construction industry at the time of the campaign's launch in 2019, according to bccassn.xpr.cloud. Chris Atchison, BCCA President, stated he expected that workforce to recognise real-life situations within the campaign's animated scenarios.
BCCA and the Construction Workforce Equity Project conducted a year-long research project before the campaign launched. That study identified bullying, hazing, and sexual harassment as recurring documented problems across Canadian construction worksites, as reported by builderscode.ca and adsoftheworld.com. The research gave Rethink a precise, evidence-based creative brief rather than a general awareness mandate.
The Don't Be A Tool campaign by the B.C. Construction Association and Rethink received a Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100. The score reflects strong strategic rationale and creative originality in using animated films for occupational safety and gender equality messaging, offset by limited independently verified performance data available in the public record.
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