Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Domestic Violence PSAs

Raising awareness about any topic is important. Especially to try and invoke change. The following site has 7 PSAs that are trying to raise awareness about Domestic Violence.
Click here to see them.
I think they all run a little on the cheesy side of things, but I can see where they are coming from... kinda...

The first one, with Kiera Knightly, I think was probably the best done one. I think the message is the clearest.
The second one, with the women's clothes on a slab of meat.. that's just weird.. and disturbing to me.. I guess I can see where some men think women are just a "piece of meat", but even at that, men don't hit slabs of meat...
The third one made a little more sense, but is still weird... yes, men hit punching bags, but don't put a dress on it...
The fourth one honestly just scares me... the makeup is poorly done and it looks like a clothing ad... my eyes are drawn to the clothes more than the faces. When I first looked at it, it took me a couple seconds to even recognize that they had bruises and a cut on their face... CHEESY!!!
The fifth one shows a man beating up a waitress.. the tag line is: "you wouldn't get away with it here, you shouldn't get away with it at home" The problem I found with this is that NOBODY in the restaurant did anything... so they were letting the guy get away with it... This PSA contradicts itself!
The sixth one, RSPCA, I think go confused on what they were trying to raise awareness on... and this is probably the worst one out of the group... I think it was poorly shot and the message is really hard to find...once you find it, it is completely confusing to me.
Finally, the seventh one...This was a great one as well.. short. simple. to the point. Stated a fact of domestic violence. I like that.

Here's the thing I felt was missing from ALL of the PSA's on this site... they are missing a call to action! They have presented a problem, but have failed to inform people on what to do. How to handle it if they were to come in contact with a DV act. Just like in a film, there is always something that makes the "hero" or the protagonist move.. makes him/her do something! If there wasn't all films would be completely boring!

Media is such a powerful avenue to get the word out on something. Almost every American watches television on a daily basis, and thus making media the fastest and most effective way to reach the mass, and drive something home. However, is raising awareness enough? I don't think so... I think people need to know what to do... How do I effectively invoke change?

What are your thoughts?

2 comments:

.heidi.noelle. said...

Are you kidding?!?! You do? :)

~S~~~~~ said...

did you watch them?