Child Abuse Is Funny. Oh Wait...No It Isn't
Now here's a marketing approach to child abuse you don't see very often. One part wedding reception. One part comedy routine. And one part awkward. The tagline, "If only it was this easy to get over child abuse" pays it off. While some might take offense to this approach, at least they only used humor for the first half of the spot after which they returned to the usual, somber message delivery you expect to see in this type of commercial.
Whybin\TBWA Sydney created the work for Adults Surviving Child Abuse.
Comments
Wow, that's definitely an interesting way to go about it. Just enough awkwardness to get the point across, but it doesn't rely on the pure scare tactics that too many public service commercials rely on.
IMO, child abuse should NOT be portrayed as a festive and anticipated life altering event. This depiction is inappropriate when dealing with this horrific misuse of power. Most times scary events require scary images to communicate the message.
The ad seems pretty realistic to me, Loretta. Lots of child abuse survivors have to go to family events and play nice with the fathers/uncles/whoever that abused them.
I actually like this campaign. It doesn't pull it's punches and it is prepared to highlight community hypocrisy about child abuse. We all rave about how horrible child abuse is, but then we expect victims to "get over it" by the time they hit 18.
Anyway, the public response to the campaign should prove interesting!
I support this approach and know the organisation who are behind the campaign. They have tried for 10 years to get someone to pay attention to this message using the usual shock tactics, tragic picture painting etc This one actually cuts through. It may make people uncomfortable - but isn't that the point with child abuse...