domestic violence

When It Can't Be Clever - Domestic Violence PSAs (part two)

 

 

Image Credit: MTV ad via YouTube

Researching last week's viz. post about domestic violence PSAs started me down a rather depressing rabbit hole.  I was curious to see how often humor was used in these ads (infrequently), but weeding through a few dozen of them yielded some interesting trends while simultaneously making me sad for the human race.  This ad, narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, is a strange juxtaposition of verbal abuse acted out as physical violence.  While I won't subject you to watching the plethora of PSAs that I waded through, I'll talk about trends in target audience, invisible vs. visible violence, and how these commercials may or may not have the desired effect.

When Humor Hurts - Domestic Violence PSAs (part one)

Image credit: The OPCC via YouTube

H/T to Rachel for suggesting the topic sending me the clip

Although Halloween is behind us, and we've packed up the glam make-up and eaten all the goodies, I'd like to call your attention to an interesting use of bunny suits I recently came across.  Or, perhaps "interesting" isn't quite the right word... inappropriate, insincere, ineffectual... these seem more apt.  While this ridiculous domestic violence PSA has already been addressed by Irin Carmon over on Jezebel, I think there are some more fundamental issues we can tackle from a rhetorical standpoint.  Ultimately, the commercial leaves me with questions about when humor actually hits the mark and when it just goes horribly wrong.

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