Some wounds never heal

The first three printads are phase two from the campaign from ASCA (Adults Surviving Child Abuse), the organisation which works to improve the lives of adult survivors of child abuse throughout Australia.
“Some wounds never heal. We can’t change their past. Together we can change their future. Visit asca.org.au."

The first phase of ASCA’s National Advertising Campaign, launched on Feb 9th has had Australians talking about the issues of the legacy of child abuse in an unprecedented way. Reactions have been focussed mainly on the TVC, which was one of 8 components of an integrated campaign across TV, radio, print and online media.

Phase two of the campaign has print and digital elements and now is being displayed on the home page of the ASCA website. Apart from being displayed in various print media nationally it will be displayed in a very public way in 50 shopping centre sites nationally on digital shop panels for 2 x 2 week periods in each site.

Phase one
In February 2009 ASCA launched phase one to raise awareness around the long-term legacy of child abuse, a taboo topic, steeped in shame, stigma and a conspiracy of silence. The campaign highlighting the needs of Australian adult survivors is already causing a healthy debate in our community and an early shift in attitudes which is seeing survivors come forward and speak out for the first time.

The campaign uses irony to portray the way society has traditionally treated survivors. Children who are abused live in fear of disclosure; adults are expected to be able to simply get over it.

Campaign data
In the first 2 weeks of the campaign calls to helpline were three times higher and have since stabilised at double the call rate.
Membership numbers tripled to quadrupled pre-campaign levels. After two weeks these numbers have stabilised to double pre-campaign levels.
In the first week of the campaign unique visits to the website were 4 to 5 times pre-campaign levels. They remained at triple in the second week and have stabilised to double except during periods of substantial media coverage when they are triple.
While ASCA have received some donations they have not seen the number of donations they hoped for.

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