The Peruvian campaign # NoDaRisa (It's not funny), carried out by UNFPA in Peru, was shortlisted in the 2021 Cannes Lions, in the Film category, Social Behavior section. The campaign focused on the fight against discrimination that is camouflaged in our culture through humor.
The campaign shows that we learned incorrectly, that we learned to laugh at some while offending others. The three campaign videos recreate sketches of comedy programs that show acts of racial discrimination, transphobia, and violence against women.
In Peru, discrimination affects various minority groups. Some of the most discriminated groups are the LGTBIQ + community (71% declared they had suffered discrimination), people living with HIV (70%), and indigenous people (64%). And 40% of Peruvians would not hire a transgender person.
Visualizing these types of normalized discrimination through humor calls for reflection on the public and political agenda, to achieve recognition of the problem and its links with gender inequality, ethnic-racial origin, sexual orientation, among other situations.
To this end, UNFPA in Peru, through the technical cooperation of UNAIDS, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights together with the National Commission Against Discrimination (CONACOD) and the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Peru, invites to recognize how humor camouflages acts of discrimination and violence, to generate changes in attitudes that promote improvements in the situation of the most vulnerable people and to mobilize rapid and joint action in favor of Human Rights.
"It is a call to become aware, especially to all of us who believe that we are not part of the problem by considering only physical violence as something negative and by ignoring daily actions of discrimination, because we learned incorrectly." commented Carmen Murguía, a specialist in Adolescence and Youth at UNFPA.
The spots, which were a call to reflection and invited debate on the normalization of discrimination in the country, were produced by Copiloto agency together with Isla Negra production company. The campaign was launched in 2019, on December 10 - Human Rights Day - and ran through 2019 and 2020.