Anti -Valentine's Day - Refuge's Latest Campaign

So recently I began the process of assisting the Sutton Women’s centre in creating a marketing strategy that would help those affected by Domestic Violence, to reach out and get help. Following an in-depth discussion with one of the employees at the centre about the cause I began to research existing campaigns that have aimed to meet similar aims.

It was this research that led me to a recent Valentine’s day campaign launched for Refuge, the largest single provider of domestic violence services in the UK. The campaign in question was created by McCann Bristol UK and featured a “reversible poem” entitled “My Husband, My Lover”. The advert reads like a poem from top to bottom but, when read backwards becomes an entirely different narrative. The advert received high praise and featured as ‘ad of the day’ on the Campaign website. The basic formatting and lack of images work to bring more attention to the written content, a bold move from McCann.

The reversible poem campaign was released before Christmas in 2018 and featured a series of poems each presenting the struggles faced by victims of domestic violence. This short and simple piece released on Valentine’s day managed to capture so much emotion and benefited from ample timing, with International women's day just around the corner. My previous blog post focused on my favourite Valentine’s adverts but failed to mention this almost anti- Valentine's ad.

The importance of reaching these women is so high and with that comes enormous pressure to create a campaign with an impact, something McCann have clearly done and I too hope to do.

" Even now, one in four women experience domestic violence in their lifetime. Two women a week are killed at the hands of a partner or ex-partner in England and Wales. And on average, another three women a week commit suicide as a way of escape. Furthermore, in 2018, eight out of 10 women Refuge supported had suffered psychological abuse for an average period of six years." (Refuge 2019)

The initial Christmas campaign for Refuge ran on press, radio, poster sites and social media, with full-page ads appearing in magazines like Woman’s Own, Marie Claire and Bella. If you have yet to read these a few examples are below: