New Yorkers might catch themselves doing a double take on subways and sidewalks starting Monday, as the city launches an eye-popping ad campaign to call out street harassment.
The colorful graphic ads display phrases like “hey sexy” and “hey baby,” as well as QR codes directing people to resources in multiple languages — including ways to report harassment and access to bystander intervention training.
City officials said the campaign is designed to shed light on the pervasive problem of cat-calling, along with other unwanted public attention, and point people toward tools to address it.
Officials said the 12 different ad designs — six in English and six in Spanish — will run throughout April, which is Sexual Violence Awareness Month. They will appear almost 12 million times in digital form on many of the city’s busiest subway lines, and more than 15 million times on the Staten Island Ferry.
The ads will also appear as sidewalk decals in more than 150 locations, as posters on fences surrounding construction sites in 75 different places, and as palm cards that outreach teams will hand out at major transit hubs. The campaign has a $250,000 budget, according to City Hall.
“What we were thinking about when we created this campaign was, ‘How do we get people to look and not turn away from the issue?’” said Saloni Sethi, commissioner for the Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence.
The end goal, the commissioner said, is even deeper.
“Whether it's talking to a friend and saying, ‘Hey, that wasn't cool to do,’ whether it's going up to a survivor in that moment we see something happening and saying, ‘Are you OK? Do you need help?’ or whether it’s doing something more as a bystander and potentially even intervening … we're really talking about changing social norms,” Sethi said.
Another one of the anti-street harassment ads New York City is rolling out
The city created the ads in response to a 2023 survey that found seven in 10 participants had experienced street harassment in their lifetimes.
Almost 90% of the survey’s respondents said they’d experienced harassment in a public space, and nearly all said the perpetrator was a stranger. Most respondents said they changed their normal route or daily behavior after experiencing street harassment, and said street harassment had caused them to feel anxiety or depression.
Brooklyn resident Deborah Coffy, 24, told Gothamist she could vividly recall multiple instances where street harassment in different parts of the city made her feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
She said one especially scary incident happened in Manhattan several years ago, while she was getting pizza with a friend after seeing a Broadway show.
“This guy was saying, ‘Hey, beautiful. Hey sexy,’ like, ‘Can I get your number?’ and all that stuff. And I said, ‘No, I don't want to,’” Coffy said. “And he just got very angry about that. He grabbed onto me.”
Coffy said her friend intervened, and they headed to the train station together, both shaken. She said she was worried about crossing paths again with the man on the way, but didn’t call the police because she was focused on getting home without further incident. Experts say that kind of response to street harassment is common, and — while perfectly natural — is part of the reason why incidents go underreported.
Deborah Coffy, 24, is a member of the city's VOICES survivor-led committee
Coffy is now a member of VOICES, a survivor-led committee sponsored by the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence that brings firsthand perspectives to the office’s policy initiatives. She said she thinks New Yorkers will be drawn to the new ads, particularly while commuting.
“I feel like this will give people the space to see like, yeah, this is a serious thing that happens and there are ways to combat it,” Coffy said. “ And maybe for those who have done street harassment to other people, hopefully it can make them think, ‘Hmm, maybe I should not be saying certain things … or touching other people.’”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he is proud to support the campaign.
“Street harassment is pervasive — it impacts New Yorkers in every borough,” he said in a statement. “And addressing it means investing in tools and resources to reduce harm and build safer communities.”
Sethi said the effort is just the beginning of more work City Hall is planning to address street harassment in its various forms. The commissioner encouraged people to get involved with the Street Harassment Prevention Advisory Board, which holds annual public meetings where individuals can share their experiences and help guide further action from city agencies.
“Everybody deserves to feel safe walking around their neighborhoods, going to work, going to school," Sethi said.
