Sending the Exclusive Anti-Abuse Message

We have already initiated a good many discussions regarding various marketing and advertising campaigns from different brands. Another big part of the advertising field, as known as the educational promotion campaigns from the non-profit organization, should also be given enough weight.

Last year in May, the foundation ANAR¹ (Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk), a Spanish nonprofit organization, developed a wonderful advertisement attempted to reach out victims of child abuse. They set up a bus-stop advertisement using a process called lenticular photography revealing two different images when you look at it from different angles.

An adult looking at the ad sees a child with the warning message “sometimes, a child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it”, but children under 4’5″, the approximate height of 10-year-olds, looking at it sees the same child with cuts and bruises on the face along with the hotline number in the message “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you.”

ANAR Foundation says the goal of this ad is to provide the opportunity to kids who suffer from the abuse to speak up and report their abuse. The reactions to the ads have been generously very positive praising the ad for clever use of the technology, but Yahoo reports some people wonder whether by making a big deal out of the ad and how it works, “the ad campaign might be less effective, since everyone has now been let in on the secret.”² But writer from the popular photography says the story surrounding the ad could be more effective than the ad itself. “ It’s certainly done a lot to make people talk about the issue, and broadcast (the foundation)’s helpline far more widely than it might otherwise have been seen.”³

Here is the link to the video posted by the ANAR Foundation explains the technology behind the Bus-stop advertisement – Anar Foundation “Only for Children”. It has been viewed by almost 9 million people on YouTube and I personally find that very fascinating for an educational promotion advertising campaign. It is certainly worth thinking that, in the world of advertising where people focus only on selling products and generating revenue, how campaigns from non-profit organizations aimed at promoting values and social norms draw adequate attention from the public. Did this campaign show a betterment of using the technology? Do you think it is a good campaign overall although there is no “secret” anymore?

1. ANAR FOUNDATION http://www.semesteratsea.org/trips/anar-foundation/

2. Anti-Child-Abuse Ad Aims to Help Kids Speak Out by Displaying a Message Only They Can See http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/anti-child-abuse-ad-aims-help-kids-speak-165043599.html

3. Lenticular PSA Gives Secret Messages to Abused Children http://www.popphoto.com/news/2013/05/lenticular-psa-gives-secret-message-to-abused-children