The ‘You Before Yes’ campaign, launched in partnership on Monday (June 12) with the UK charities Brook, Fumble, UK Says No More and Switchboard, aims to help people develop “more positive consent behaviours”.
Superdrug’s superintendent Naimh McMillian confirmed to C+D that You Before Yes leaflets will be available at all of the multiple’s pharmacies and health clinics, allowing pharmacists and nurses to “provide information and signpost to the most appropriate services” as part of the campaign.
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“Our dedicated healthcare teams are in a prime position to help people with their sexual health needs, whether that’s providing access to sexual health products and services or offering expert advice,” she said.
The You Before Yes campaign tackles the “crucial”, but “overlooked” issue of sexual consent by providing information, education and support, the multiple said.
Superdrug hopes to kickstart “important conversations about what consent actually means, helping people feel informed and empowered to find their voice and take positive action”, it said.
The campaign will initially include:
- A website containing “essential consent education and information”.
- Videos and blogs written by campaign partners, including charities and campaign ambassador Georgia Harrison.
- Information on “who to reach out to if help and support is needed”.
“Devastating impact”
The ‘You Before Yes’ campaign was launched in response to the results of Superdrug research conducted in January on over 2,000 customers aged between 18 and 21, the multiple said.
More than one third of respondents (36%) reported having “‘gone along with sex’ even though they didn’t want to”, while three in 10 said they has done so “out of fear of what would happen if they said no”, Superdrug said.
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Meanwhile, a quarter (25%) of respondents reported “[going] along with unprotected sex”, with 41% of this group saying they were “too afraid to say no”, it added.
The results showed there is a lack of understanding about consent among people in the age group surveyed, as well as the “devastating impact that non-consensual behaviours are having” on them, Superdrug said.
In what the chain is claiming as a “UK first” from September 2023, Superdrug will also be putting consent warnings messages and a QR code to the ‘You before Yes’ microsite on its own brand condoms to “reinforce” the importance of seeking consent before sex, it said.
