Effective advertising? | 64 comments (64 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Effective advertising? (4.00 / 4)

This might be a good moment to mention that as a man I'd be a lot happier if DV campaigns acknowledged the existence - never mind the prevalence - of physical, emotional, legal, and financial violence against men.

I'm not going to support or contribute to any campaign which assumes that women are always victims and men are always aggressors. It may be like that in some countries, but that's simply not the reality of DV in the West.

What we need to do most is show women who do expereince domestic violence that the behaviour they keep excusing, shouldn't be tolerated and that there is help.

Even if you plan to keep this women-only, I'd suggest that there's quite a bit more to DV than excusing inexcusable behaviour. The psychology of DV is complex and subtle, and there's a spectrum of relationship types and behaviours which include elements of family-of-origin damage, substance abuse, and very subtle forms of control and brainwashing.

I think anti-DV campaigns would be better served by better education in relationship literacy, and better role modelling of what good relationships look like.

A campaign showing healthy relationships that don't assume mutual abuse would certainly be a first.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Mar 15th, 2011 at 02:09:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Effective advertising? (4.00 / 2)

The audience is women union reps - the focus is communicating the gender impact of the cuts. We aren't looking at brainstorming on a campaign, we are just trying to get reps to produce something and gather ideas for doing more practical stuff back in their workplaces.

This isn't about DV per se, although an increased incidence in DV is associated with households who take in less than £20k, and is also associated with increased stress and financial worry.

Welsh DV campaigns more recently have highlighted the subtleties and behaviours that are not healthy in relationships.

We want to get messages out about the impact of cuts from the perspectives of unpaid care, employment, benefits and education.

The idea behind gathering examples of a range of successful campaigns/communication methods is to inspire reps to think out of the box about projects of their own and how they will communicate to their members. Clips of people telling their personal stories always has an impact.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Tue Mar 15th, 2011 at 02:49:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Effective advertising? (none / 0)

It might be useful - partly for its shock value - to show a domestic violence video sequence where a women physically abuses a man - and then ask the question: would you like this to happen to you?

This breaks the stereotype that its always man on women abuse; that D|V is somehow an exclusively "womens" issue; and encourages men to identify with the abused rather than the abuser.

It would be interesting to see how male viewers "cope" with the video: often with sarcasm/humour/evasiveness - and blame the man for not being a real man for allowing it to happen. - this comes from the same of thought form stable that the blames the female victim for "asking for it" by not being sufficient sweet/amenable/compliant or whatever.

You could role play it - and video some vox pop reactions to the video - and the advice they give the victim on how s/he should have reacted, or bystanders should have reacted. Or how you would have reacted. Or what you thought was the underlying cause, and what could be a lasting solution.

Put all the prejudices/hang-ups out there as expressed by people reacting to the role play so that the reactions become part of the role play experience. Actors responding to the advice given from the audience - harassing a member of the audience - also role played - who gives "the WRONG answer".

Confuse people by implying they are implicated in the violence - it was there fault it happened because they did nothing. Break the conventional performer/detached observer convention.` YOU knew your neighbour was being beaten up, didn't you?

etc.

Index of Frank's Diaries

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Tue Mar 15th, 2011 at 04:49:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Effective advertising? (none / 0)

Moving off DV but along similar lines in terms of communicating issues with personal impact - digital stories like this one have a great impact in raising awareness and personalising an issue that most people choose to avoid or stereotype.

The difficulty is getting people to care about issues that they think have nothing to do with them and never will.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Tue Mar 15th, 2011 at 05:14:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Effective advertising? (none / 0)

And one on disability - don't know how to embed from facebook though.

Accessibility of public transport - Julie

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Tue Mar 15th, 2011 at 05:19:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Effective advertising? (none / 1)

Here is an idea on that theme:

create a site dedicated to gathering stories about how the cuts are affecting you and your dear ones. (With step-by-step guides for common cell-phones/webcam solutions.)
a campaign to get people to tell how the cuts are affecting them - Speak out! - through the site in question. Pamphlet/letter: "We know that the cut of [insert social service] leads to [insert consequence] but we need you to tell the world what that means in practice. Check the stories and upload your own at [site]" Poster with picture of Cameron: "He stole your money to hand it to their banker friends. He is counting on your silence, do not give it to him! Speak Out!"
facebook group, twitter with twitter tag #speakout, and all that jazz
plan activities that can be launched if and when it takes of, like a symbolic handover of the stories (one cd each, to make a visual impact) or a big demonstration with the stories running on big screens.

The point is to get people angry at what is being done to them rather then to feel shame for their situation. By placing their stories front and center, you illustrate in action that the union is for them. You also get the effect that those that upload their stories are likely to market the campaign to their friends. Hopefully some videos goes viral and are then easy to run by the newscorps (include permission rights to that effect when uploading) to illustrate the news.

Use if you like. At least it is not a poster that has been here since the 50ies...

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Thu Mar 17th, 2011 at 04:20:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Effective advertising? | 64 comments (64 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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