“The village is toxic. The culture is wallpapered with hyper-sexualised images. You can’t walk outside and not notice it.”

As the co-founder of Collective Shout, an organisation campaigning to end the objectification and sexualisation of women and girls in media and advertising, you could say that Melinda has seen more than most when it comes to the worst society has to offer in advertising standards. But then again, it’s usually plastered on the walls for anyone to see.

2014 was a busy year for campaigners attached to the Collective Shout movement. Hundreds of thousands of people across the country have taken action in their communities against companies they consider to be “objectifying girls and women” to make a profit.

Companies like Wicked Campers. The camper van company, popular particularly among backpackers, was the subject of a Collective Shout campaign in 2014 when mother Paula Orbea encountered one of the campers with her 11-year-old daughter on a suburban street in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney. The van’s slogan, scrawled in paint, read: “In every princess, there’s a little slut who wants to try it just once.” When her daughter got upset over what she’d read, Ms Orbea decided something should be done.

“It is inconceivable that Wicked Campers choose to not only write the misogynistic “joke” but also then publicise it through their moving, billboard vans,” wrote Ms Orbea in a petition on the activist site change.org. “This is not good. I’m calling it out.” And so did 127,000 others, who signed the petition. Collective Shout got behind the petition, which asked Wicked Campers to remove all of their misogynistic messages within six months, using social media to get the word out.

“Some people think, ‘What’s the use? A petition won’t make a difference’,” Melinda told Eternity. “But on change.org, every time someone signs the petition, the offending company is sent an email. Wicked Campers received 127,000 emails. That would have driven them nuts.”

The campaign received widespread media coverage, and the public support drew the attention of Greens Senator Larissa Waters who put a motion to the senate to condemn the company. It passed unanimously.

Ms Orbea soon after received an email from Wicked Campers, apologising for the slogan and vowing to make changes to other slogans of an “insensitive nature”. But Melinda says there’s continued work to be done holding the company to account to make sure its commitment to remove the slogans is carried out.

Another collective win was initiated be a Queensland man who decided to speak out against an Isuzu Ute competition. Queenslander Dave Martin, a supporter of Collective Shout, highlighted the competition which positioned its new ute as the “X-rated D-Max Ute” and offered the chance to win “five hot nights” for “you and three mates” in Bangkok, Thailand.

“It was promoting sex tourism,” said Melinda. “Thailand is widely known to be a hot spot for human trafficking and child prostitution. It hosts Asia’s largest sex industry,”. She cites the win – Isuzu withdrew the competition after over 3000 people signed the petition – as one of the most compelling of the year.

“Initially they [Isuzu] said we had misunderstood the ad. But there was nothing to misunderstand here.”

Melinda has seen an increase in organisations asking her to speak about the dangers of pornography and the objectification of women – including in churches.

“We’re in a time when we’re seeing an unprecedented assault on the healthy sexual engagement of our young people. We’re raising boys with a sense of entitlement to the bodies of women and girls. We need a whole-community response to this.”

She says pornography is the biggest battle for the community, in her eyes. But the hyper-sexualised images children, and adults, are forced to see in the public sphere should not be seen as the “new normal”.

“We can’t accept that this is just the way it is now. We can’t. It’s getting worse. Imagine what it will be like in another five years. If you tried to talk to your children about the images they see when they leave the house, you’d be talking to them about sex all the time. It’s time to do something about it.”

Here are a few other “wins” Collective Shout have under their belt for 2014.

Notorious dating coach Julien Blanc forced to leave Australia: Blanc, who runs seminars teaching men how to “abuse, control and harass women” and promotes choking women, planned to tour Australia when his visa was cancelled by the federal government. A public campaign, including a petition with over 50,000 signatures was supported by Collective Shout, putting pressure on venues to pull out of hosting his events. Melinda says it was the largest campaign she’s been involved in to date.

Axing of the Lingerie Football League: Over 8000 signatures were collected petitioning Channel 7 to take the League off its schedule. “If men want to play gridiron they can wear protective clothing that covers their bodies. If women want to play, they have to wear lingerie and sign contracts allowing for accidental nudity,” Melinda told Eternity. In 2014, Channel 7 cancelled the deal, though they did not respond to the petition and no mention was made about public pressure.