I could complain (with my usual rant) that these ads are overly art directed, but in this case that would be missing the point. The concept is solid, and the lifecycle of abused children is clearly communicated. This time, I think the fact that they are also visually complex eye candy does not detract from the serious and troubling message that “70% of abused children turn into abusive adults.”
This domestic violence campaign started running nationally in movie theatres across the United States. They are from ARTesia Healing Arts, an art project under A Touch of Love Foundation.
ARTesia and her founder Michele Foster partnered with veteran film maker Stew Birbrower who created a commercial campaign to address the subject of domestic violence.
The campaign emphasize that domestic violence is epidemic across the board; affecting young and old, black and white, rich and poor.
The Voice over in all spots is from Louis Gossett, Jr.
UPDATE: Adland just revealed that the location of this event was misrepresented as Red Light District, when in fact it was staged in the more posh Jordaan neighbourhood.
I find this deceit really disappointing. While the message is important and the execution excellent, the “guerrilla” aspects of the campaign are tarnished by misrepresentation. It is, in effect, just an ad now. As Adland’s Åsk writes, “My spontaneous applause came from the fact I thought this dancing flashmob of pretend-hookers were delivering the message to the actual target market of men who buy women in the red light district.”
Amsterdam’s Red Light District is known worldwide as a place of prostitution, and the area is frequented both by “Johns” and curious tourists. As Duval Guillaume points out, “They often see the prostitutes as a kind of entertainment, every day hundreds of ‘windowshoppers’ from all over the world take a stroll on the Amsterdam canals.”
Stop The Traffik used this captivatied audience as a way to tell the world that this is not fun and games; that real people are suffering as a result of human trafficking that supplies the sex trade.
While the flash mob idea is getting pretty stale, the context and the pure precision of this one make it worthwhile. And the message, that so many international “dancers” end up selling their bodies instead, is powerful and memorable.
Using the context of location-based social networking in print ads is nothing new, but I found this execution pretty hard hitting. It shows the victim as wanting to cry for help, to share her story, but scared and alone. It only works in large scale, though, so here’s a detail of the status update above:
See two more after the break. Click on the thumbnails to expand and discover the person lost in a big world that is too often unaware of her plight. It’s troubling stuff.
Men Can Stop Rape launched this campaign called Where Do You Stand? last month. The worked together with the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to increase the number of men on campus who intervene to prevent dating violence and sexual assault.
The campaign is a direct result of the many recent incidents of rape, sexual assault and dating violence that have occurred on campuses.
62% of undergraduate students say they have encountered some type of sexual harassment according to recent studies.
Men Can Stop Rape is focusing now with this campaign on male bystanders who witness potentially violent situations.
Men Can Stop Rape Executive Director, Neil Irvin. “This campaign builds on young men’s ability, desire, and commitment to being strong without being violent. We look forward to using Where Do You Stand? to deepen existing relationships and build new partnerships with college campuses across the country.”
Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton shared this excellent campus poster on their Facebook Page:
Created by The New School in New York City for Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April), the poster is just one part of an integrated campaign to raise awareness of the importance of sexual consent and the school’s new sexual assault policy.
Its goals are:
• To raise awareness of the incidence of sexual assault
• To educate the university community about active consent
• To educate those who report an incident of sexual assault about their rights, including information about medical, legal, and support resources on- and off-campus
• To create a campus culture that does not tolerate sexual assault, prioritizes student safety, and respects all members of our community
That’s all very good, but what impresses me is the frank sexuality of the conversation portrayed. The design is pretty basic, but the messaging is clear. And it’s showing both (gender ambiguous) partners taking a role in putting all their personal preferences and boundaries on the table (or bed, or floor, or deserted football field). While silence is never to be taken as consent, persuading everyone to speak up and improve sexual communication is a good thing.
According to Maps 4 Aid India is the 4th most dangerous place in the world for women to live in. To visualize this terrible fact they started a Google maps Ushahidi platform based website.
Victims and witness are ask to report any abuse and violence against women.
And the figures are shocking. Even with the fact in mind that only a small group would use this report system.
The reports from today only, March 10:
Crimes against women on the rise in Mizoram.
Unable to bear torture over additional dowry, 30 yr old Dhanamma ends life.
Six persons arrested for killing Shreya Jagdap for Dowry in October 2011.
Man arrested for hitting pregnant wife in the abdomen demanding for more dowry.
Husband and in laws harass Kavitha for INR 20 Lakh Dowry. Case filed.
6 year old raped and killed in Semgarah village of Uttar Pradesh.
Villagers threaten to parade gang rape victim naked if she does not leave the village.
Dowry Harassment: 25 year old Kajal Gajera commits suicide along with her one and half year old daughter.
Since its start in September 2011, more than 1300 reports have been documented, mapped, tracked and shared with the online community through social media and online campaigning. They started maps4aid after reading the TrustLaw Report of last year and was compelled to take some action and they came up with the idea of maps4aid to increase media level awareness of such incidents in the country.
I believe in this kind of new technology. It is easy to use and accessible.
And in time it gives the organization a good dossier to create awareness based on facts.
This powerful and disturbing campaign attempts to make UK teens more aware of what “date rape” looks like by showing the perpetrator as a self-aware observer of his own actions.
I think the approach is a good one, since it shows that the aggressor might have a more compassionate side, even if he has allowed himself to turn into something reprehensible. It may just prevent the usual defensive processing problem of this kind of social marketing by giving the male viewer a choice of which of these characters he wants to be. The ad imagines what he would do if he just stopped and gave himself a sober second of what he was really doing to his peer: not “hooking up” — rape.
It also shows girls that it is a crime and they have a right for it not to happen.
The campaign page states that 33 per cent of teenage girls and 16 per cent of boys in the UK report that they have experienced some form of sexual violence from a boyfriend or girlfriend. It has to change.
Project Unbreakable is a photography project, initiated by 19-year old Grace Brown, that gives rape and sexual abuse survivors a voice by repeating the last thing their abuser said to them. It’s chilling, shocking and a reminder of how violent, degrading and sometimes just mundane rape and sexual abuse can be. Grace has also started her own fundraising page to help women affected by these issues.
The charity SurvivorsUK is undertaking a major advertising campaign after Metropolitan Police figures revealed that one man every hour in London is the victim of sexual crime.
Official government estimates state that at most 11% of male victims report their crimes. With new Met Police figures showing that in 2009/10 a total of 945 sexual assaults against men were reported, the true figure is closer to 10,000 in the capital alone.
The campaign featuring a rugby ball pierced by a nail and the message “Real Men Get Raped and Talking About It Takes Real Strength”, will be featured on 140 escalator panels in central London Tube stations from February 20th during the Six Nations rugby tournament. The adverts will also feature on two 48 Sheet billboards at Clapham Junction train station and on big screens at Waterloo station on 25th February and 17th March, when England are playing at home in the tournament.
Awareness and prevention measures must be taken. But is this ad headline the right way to go? “Real Men” and “Not Real Men”? My opinion, the campaign should appeal to all men who had this terrible experience, ... should be inclusive of all male rape victims, regardless of how their masculinity manifests. (more after the break)
Human trafficking – it is the new slave trade, an action many of us thought be extinct after the US Civil War. But it is worse than ever, not least because many of the victims hand themselves over to get out of economic and political peril. They want to…
I recently had the privilege of being invited to speak and participate in the 2012 Design Ethos Conference/Do-ference at Savannah College of Art and Design. The creator of the conference, Scott Boylston, is a longtime friend in the relatively small socially conscious design community and I was delighted that…
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