It's On Us partnered with Mekanism and Tony Hawk for #CollegeReorientation, a 2021 back-to-school PSA combining digital video and QR-coded party cup stickers
ARCHIVEHow It's On Us and Tony Hawk Reoriented Campus Safety in 2021
It's On Us, the United States' largest nonprofit dedicated to college sexual assault prevention and survivor support, launched #CollegeReorientation with Tony Hawk in September 2021 — a back-to-school public service campaign created with independent creative agency Mekanism to build awareness of bystander intervention tactics as students returned to in-person campus life for the first time in over a year.
The campaign addressed a concern shared by experts at the time of launch: that the convergence of first-year students experiencing campus life for the first time alongside older students eager to make up for time lost during the pandemic created conditions for a potential rise in campus sexual assault incidents. It's On Us positioned bystander intervention — the practice of active, educated witnesses stepping in to prevent harm — as the practical, empowering response to that risk. The campaign's dual-channel architecture reflected that ambition. A digital video PSA narrated by professional skateboarder Tony Hawk carried the campaign's narrative core across social and digital platforms in the United States. Simultaneously, a physical campus activation component, developed by Mekanism in collaboration with local It's On Us campus chapters, placed thousands of QR-code stickers on party cups at college events. Those QR codes directed students directly to The Bystander's Guide to Stopping Sexual Assault, a practical resource explaining how to intervene and help prevent incidents from escalating. The campaign went live on or around September 10, 2021, according to shots.net, with Clapboard's own archive recording a publication timestamp of September 8, 2021. The call to action extended beyond the guide itself: students were also encouraged to take the It's On Us Pledge at itsonus.org/pledge, connecting the immediate moment of encountering the campaign to a longer-term commitment to the organization's mission.
ARCHIVEMekanism designed #CollegeReorientation to meet students precisely where campus social life concentrates. The party cup sticker activation was not incidental — it was the strategic insight. By embedding a QR code on an object already present at social gatherings, the campaign delivered bystander intervention education at the exact moment and location where intervention might be needed, without requiring students to seek out the information independently.
The broader public interest context reinforced this approach. It's On Us operates within a fragmented ecosystem of sexual violence prevention organizations across the United States. Peer organizations such as RAINN, which according to rainn.org operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, which according to nsvrc.org serves as a leading information and resource center on sexual violence in the US, address overlapping audiences and adjacent concerns. What distinguishes It's On Us, as documented by civicnation.org, is its campus-specific focus and its emphasis on shared community responsibility rather than victim-centered messaging alone. That positioning made the back-to-school moment of 2021 — when US campuses were reopening after extended pandemic closures — particularly significant. The return to in-person learning was not simply a logistical milestone; it was a cultural reset that It's On Us and Mekanism identified as a window for reestablishing behavioral norms around sexual consent and active bystander responsibility. Tony Hawk's participation as narrator extended the campaign's reach beyond campus chapter networks and into broader digital and social audiences in the United States, lending the PSA a recognizable cultural voice without overpowering its public service message.
The creative execution of #CollegeReorientation operates on two registers simultaneously. The digital video PSA, narrated by Tony Hawk, carries the campaign's narrative voice — a figure whose cultural currency spans generations of young Americans and whose association with risk, physicality, and community made him a considered rather than arbitrary choice for a campaign about bystander responsibility. As reported by shots.net, the video PSA was the campaign's primary media asset, functioning as both a standalone piece of public interest content and a driver of traffic toward The Bystander's Guide to Stopping Sexual Assault.
The physical activation component revealed equal creative intentionality. Mekanism worked directly with local It's On Us campus chapters to distribute thousands of QR-code stickers placed on party cups across college campuses in the United States. The simplicity of the mechanic belied its precision: the sticker format required no special media buy, no algorithmic placement, and no opt-in. It inserted itself into a social context organically. The QR code destination — The Bystander's Guide — provided structured, actionable guidance rather than general awareness messaging, closing the loop between encounter and education. Creative leadership on the campaign at Mekanism included Chief Creative Officer Tommy Means, Creative Director Amina Halim, and Design Director Tessa Paneri. Junior Art Director Ingrid Oliveira also contributed to the creative team. Production was overseen by Head of Production Kati Haberstock and Producer Veronika Fontaine, with Chief Operating Officer Mike Zlatoper providing operational leadership. The campaign's visual and tonal choices — lean, direct, anchored in a recognizable cultural figure and a low-friction physical object — reflected a discipline appropriate to public service work, where creative excess can undermine the clarity a message depends on.
Clapboard scores #CollegeReorientation with Tony Hawk at 61 out of 100, a rating that reflects the campaign's meaningful strategic architecture while noting limitations in documented reach and engagement at the time of archiving. Clapboard's own archive records the video PSA accumulating approximately 2,863 views and 16 likes on the platform where it was submitted, figures that represent a narrow slice of total campaign exposure given the campaign's multi-channel distribution across digital, social, and physical campus activations.
No independently verified performance metrics for the full campaign — including total video views, QR code scan rates, Bystander's Guide downloads, or pledge completions attributable specifically to the #CollegeReorientation campaign — are publicly available. What the campaign's structure does demonstrate, however, is a coherent theory of change: meet students in high-risk social environments, reduce the friction to accessing intervention education, and connect immediate exposure to a durable organizational commitment through the It's On Us Pledge at itsonus.org. As documented by civicnation.org, It's On Us has operated as a long-standing initiative under Civic Nation, adding institutional credibility to the campaign's broader reach claims even where granular metrics are absent. The dual-channel model — digital narrative plus physical campus activation — is structurally sound for a public interest campaign operating without the media budget of a commercial advertiser, maximizing earned presence in environments no paid placement could reliably access.
#CollegeReorientation is a 2021 back-to-school public service campaign by It's On Us and Mekanism. It used a video PSA narrated by Tony Hawk alongside QR-coded party cup stickers placed on US college campuses to direct students to bystander intervention education resources and encourage them to take the It's On Us Pledge.
It's On Us launched the campaign in September 2021 as US campuses reopened after pandemic closures. Experts at the time identified a potential rise in campus sexual assault due to the convergence of first-time students and older students returning simultaneously, making bystander intervention education urgent and timely.
Mekanism worked with local It's On Us campus chapters to place thousands of QR-code stickers on party cups across US college campuses. The codes linked directly to The Bystander's Guide to Stopping Sexual Assault, delivering practical intervention education inside the social environments where students were most likely to need it.
Tony Hawk narrated the #CollegeReorientation video PSA, bringing cross-generational cultural recognition to a public interest message aimed at US college students. His association with risk, physicality, and community made him a considered choice for a campaign centered on active bystander responsibility, as reported by shots.net.
Mekanism's creative team for #CollegeReorientation included Chief Creative Officer Tommy Means, Creative Director Amina Halim, Design Director Tessa Paneri, and Junior Art Director Ingrid Oliveira. Production was led by Head of Production Kati Haberstock and Producer Veronika Fontaine, with Chief Operating Officer Mike Zlatoper overseeing operations.
Clapboard scores #CollegeReorientation with Tony Hawk at 61 out of 100. The rating reflects the campaign's strong strategic logic and dual-channel creative model while acknowledging limited publicly verified performance data for the full US campaign activation beyond platform-level archive metrics.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
