The It’s On Us campaign recently used a different tactic to bring awareness to the serious issue of sexual assault on college campuses: humor.

It’s On Us partnered with CollegeHumor to create a new public service announcement focused on the statistic that one in five women are sexually assaulted during their college careers, according to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll. The PSA used humor to compare the statistic to a situation in which a bear eats one in five people.

The PSA kick-started the It’s On Us National Week of Action, which will take place Monday through Friday. Colleges and universities across the country will be hosting events on their respective campuses to help raise awareness about sexual assault prevention.

The campaign, started by President Barack Obama in September 2014, was the subject of a White House conference call to promote the PSA on Thursday. White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, CollegeHumor Executive Director Spencer Griffin and actor Jake Johnson, who plays Nick Miller on the TV show “New Girl,” all spoke about their involvement with the campaign and PSA during the about 25-minute conference call.

Griffin said CollegeHumor was glad to work with the White House to help spread awareness about the issue of sexual assault.

“Any time we at CollegeHumor have the opportunity to use humor to engage people in an important topic is a great thing,” Griffin said.

In the beginning, Griffin said he and others at CollegeHumor struggled with how to use comedy to address the issue of sexual assault. But what stuck out to everyone is how “terrifying” the one in five statistic is.

The workers at CollegeHumor realized, Griffin said, that if the statistic were about a bear eating one in five people instead, then a group of guys would do something about that.

Johnson said as soon as he heard about the It’s On Us campaign’s idea for the PSA, he was on board. He added that he liked the idea of putting the responsibility to end sexual assault on “the group of dudes.”

“If you’re a guy that knows somebody that will do this type of thing, that guy is a punk,” Johnson said. “You gotta do something. If you know something is going on in your frat house and you don’t do something, you’re just as bad in my opinion.”

At SU, there will be It’s On Us tabling every day during the Week of Action inside the Schine Student Center and on the Quad.

In addition, Vice President Joe Biden, an alumnus of SU’s College of Law, will be speaking at SU in Goldstein Auditorium Thursday as a part of the It’s On Us Week of Action. The exact time of the event will be announced early in the week, according to an SU News release. Tickets for the event will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Published on November 8, 2015 at 8:01 pm

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann