M&C Saatchi creates a guide for men to help women feel safer on the streets

The guide has been created in response to the current conversation around safety on our streets, with men across the nation asking how they can do more to help women feel safe. As the agency puts it, the guide "seeks to help men realise that even 'good guys' can be perceived as a threat and that they have a role to play in helping women feel more comfortable when out on the streets".

Featured are seven quick and easy-to-follow rules that men can adopt when out and about to help women feel safe, acknowledging that it's not women's responsibility to take precautions to "avoid" being harassed. Rules like 'Don't walk behind her', 'Hood down, hands out' and 'Cross the street'. The last rule, 'Educate your mates', invites men to help spread the word amongst their friends, too.

To really hit home its campaign, M&C Saatchi has partnered with Solace Women's Aid, a charity that aims to help end violence against women and children, and Token Man, an initiative that works to help men better understand the challenges faced by women in the workplace and beyond.

The push also aims to spark a conversation about men's role as active allies to women, with a call-to-action for men to find out how to be a positive bystander, taking steps to ensure safety such as calling out abusers, reporting abuse and preventing situations from escalating. Charity partner Solace Women's Aid has provided more details on how to do this, which people can download from the goodguysguide.co.uk website.

Creatively, the campaign highlights its seven rules with straightforward typographic visuals and introduces memorable, quirky, colourful figures to illustrate the "situations women face in a very didactic way".

Camila Gurgel, senior copywriter at M&C Saatchi, says: "A lot of men are only just starting to realise how afraid women can often feel when out on the streets at night. We wanted to create something to help the men who call themselves 'the good guys' do their bit to make women feel safer.

"We know that a lot more needs to be done to address violence and harassment against women at a higher level, but this campaign aims to at least start a conversation around the role that men can play to make sure that women feel more comfortable. We hope it will also inspire many of them to take the next step to become active allies and take more concrete actions to make the streets a safe space for everyone."

Ieva Paulina, senior art director at the agency, adds: "For a while now, Camila and I have wanted to create something which highlights the intimidation, abuse and harassment which women so often experience, and the role of men in helping to address this. The tragic events of recent weeks have opened up a whole conversation around these issues, and so it felt like the right moment to launch something to give the men out there the tools they need to make a difference."

To find out more, visit goodguysguide.co.uk.