
Anti-Abuse Bus Stop Ad Only Batters Women When Nobody's Looking - amilr
http://copyranter.blogspot.com/2009/06/high-tech-anti-domestic-violence.html
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tjic
Typical "clever" designer wankery.

First, whether it's politically correct or not, the fact is that certain
social problems are more prevalent in some demographics than others. There's
more domestic violence among high school drop out first generation immigrants
cohabiting than there is among married white college grads in Vermont. There's
more AIDS among gay drug users than among heterosexual non drug users, etc.

However, it's remarkable that the public service messages are often targeted
at the wrong demographics (both in content - e.g. the white middle-class
couple in this photo, and in medium - e.g. in bus shelters in middle class
areas).

Why is this done?

The vast majority of people involved in organizations that create public
service ads are politically of the left, are innumerate, and hate admitting
that problems are not spread evenly across all demographics.

So we get anti-HIV ads aimed at safe demographics instead of at-risk
demographics.

This ad not only compounds that problem, but goes for the "clever" hook.

The excellent book _Tested Advertising Methods (Prentice Hall Business
Classics)_ by John Caples and Fred E. Hahn talks about "clever" hooks - how,
when they're A/B tested, they always fail. Creative types love funs, plays on
words, etc.

[http://www.amazon.com/Advertising-Methods-Prentice-
Business-...](http://www.amazon.com/Advertising-Methods-Prentice-Business-
Classics/dp/0130957011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246050271&sr=8-1)

...but all the evidence shows that this DOES NOT RESULT IN RESULTS.

The fact that this new poster is deployed is yet more evidence that the people
involved in non-profits are innumerate.

The unstated goal of almost every non-profit is NOT to resolve the problem
under debate, it is to maximize the span of control and the comfort of the
people working at the non-profit.

Phil Greenspun touches on that here:

<http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement/>

So, in conclusion:

BAH! This ad embodies everything that is wrong with non-profits and public
service ads.

~~~
warfangle
Of course, this advertisement is in Germany. A quick google search for
domestic violence demographics in germany didn't pull anything immediately
useful (and neither did wolfram alpha). I'm willing to bet, though, that the
demographic range for domestic violence there is a little bit different than
in the USA (especially considering their racial demograph is quite a bit
different: 2.1% turkish, and 6.x% 'other', mostly other european countries).

~~~
rglovejoy
If it's in Germany, then why is the ad in English?

~~~
jerf
Your primary language is English, so when you look at the ad, you see it in
English.

When a native German looks at it, it's in German.

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beefman
Naturally, the man is hitting the woman.

[http://www.metafilter.com/82659/Domestic-Violence-Women-
Abus...](http://www.metafilter.com/82659/Domestic-Violence-Women-Abusers-On-
The-Rise)

