In November of 2015, It’s On Us, the White House initiative to stop sexual assault on college campuses, and College Humor teamed up and created what may be the most underrated video on the internet. According to statistics, one in five women will be sexually assaulted by the time they finish college. The campaign presents its audience with the question, “What if a bear was attacking one in five of your friends?”
The campaign takes place in a man cave where Jake Johnson, Lamorne Morris, Rob Riggle and David Walton are all hanging out, drinking beer, and watching sports. Johnson plays a bystander that is fully aware that there is a bear in the other room but pretends it does not exist because he’s not quite sure what to do about it. Throughout the campaign he says things about the bear such as, “Just pretend it’s not there,” and “I don’t know what to do about it, so I just ignore it.”
As ridiculous as the campaign is, it’s humor puts into perspective how serious the “one in five” statistic really is. The argument behind the entire thing is if one of your five friends was going to be eaten by a bear, then you’d do something about it, so why would you not do something about one in five women in your class being sexually assaulted?
Bravo It’s On Us and College Humor, bravo.