The City of Mississauga is calling their “One Mississauga” anti-hate and racism campaign a success, only three weeks after it began. With 51 million impressions and counting, the city says the campaign is “getting noticed” and has been “positively received overall.”
Robert Trewartha, Director of Strategic Communications and initiatives at the City of Mississauga provided the update to the Combatting Racism, Discrimination and Hatred Committee on May 7.
Trewartha called the print and digital ad campaign “edgier than anything we’ve done at the city before.” The brightly coloured ads feature a “call and response” design with statements such as, “I’m not racist, but” followed by, “…Enough said,” which the city refers to as “witty retorts.”
The six different versions were pushed out in mid-April on the city’s digital platforms, including social media and as paid Google ads. They also appeared on CN rail and highway overpasses, transit shelters, and community centre and library digital screens.
The campaign also received media coverage with 27 different print or radio segments highlighting the topic.
The One Mississauga ad campaign is a response to last year’s Peel Police report indicating a rise in hate crimes related to race, religion, and sexual orientation in 2023. Last year’s 2023 Annual Hate Motivated Crime Report found there were 163 hate-motivated crimes in the Region of Peel and that 35 led to charges.
Jewish community victimization doubled in 2023 to 44, up from 20 in 2022. Hate crimes against the Muslim community increased by 3, going from 10 in 2022 to 13 in 2023.
The police were scheduled to provide the new 2024 hate crimes numbers at the Combatting Racism, Discrimination, and Hatred Committee on May 7, however, that didn’t happen. The police will instead present the new statistics at the September committee meeting in the fall.
Committee Chair, City Councillor Dipika Damerla, told the committee, “Mississauga is a global city and so every time there’s global conflicts, it sort of impacts here.” The committee also mused in the past about the possibility of hate crime activity being “exacerbated by some of the language being used south of the border and elsewhere.”
While the City is pleased with the One MIssissauga campaign’s rollout and reception, not all of the feedback has been positive. As Trewartha remarked, “We knew it was going to generate conversation and it has.”
Councillor Damerla asked him if the City was going to quantify the comments on social media and on news articles about the campaign to get an idea of numbers of positive vs negative feedback. He responded that it was too early to do so now, but that he felt that there were many positive comments and the city would have a better analysis of the comments at the next meeting scheduled for September.
The Meadowvale Pulse looked at the comments posted on 905 Hub’s April 16 Instagram post about the campaign. There were 671 comments, 4,547 likes, and 11,000k shares as of May 8.
A quick scan of the comments shows a diverse range of views, but most could be classified as negative. Many people felt the campaign was a waste of taxpayer dollars, others thought the city should have other priorities, such as cost of living, still others felt it was divisive, “cringe,” “performative politics” or “woke.”
There were some supportive comments, such as “this is needed now more than ever.” And quite a few people took issue with the singling out of Port Credit in the ad saying, “Go back to where you came from! You mean Port Credit?”
According to Trewartha, the city is “careful online about how much stock we put in comments” on the internet as they are wary of bots, anonymous posters, and people “with other agendas.” So far the city has received a few positive emails and one negative phone call, but overall, very little formal feedback from residents through 311 or through email.
In terms of money spent on the campaign, the city puts the number at around $5,000 and feels the money is being spent “judiciously” and mostly on demand generation ads through Google, which the city finds to be “very effective” and with a high click through rate and return on investment.
Going forward, the city will be looking to move on to phase 2 of the campaign, and eventually phase 3. Phase 2 will involve working with the Countering Hate Committee at the Peel Regional Police around informing the public about the reporting of hate crimes and hate motivated incidents.
Phase 3 will be focused on working directly with community groups most affected by hate crimes, such as working with the Jewish community to more specifically meet their needs.
