The Brief

Gabriela has been promoting their Spousal Abuse hotline for quite some time. In the past, they have used TV commercials to encourage women to report their abusive husbands. Yet, despite the high penetration of TV in the Philippines, calls to the hotline did not increase significantly. The reason was simple. Most households in the Philippines have only 1 TV. This made viewing a family affair. When faced with such a sensitive message such as spousal abuse, women would simply change the channel or totally ignore the message in the presence of their children and more so their husbands.

Creative Execution

Having settled on the venue, we needed an execution that would catch people's attention. And what could be more hard-hitting and relevant than a woman gagged, bound, blindfolded and ultimately abused. The use of duct-tape did not only illustrate the abuse many women had to endure, it likewise served to hold-up the posters. Spousal abuse is not something people like to talk about, but by blatantly exposing the problem to the public, they could no longer avoid the issue.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

To encourage more calls to the hotline, we suggested a community-based effort in order to target women when they were alone. Neighborhood telephone poles and other posts would prove to be the perfect venue. They could easily been seen by women while on their way to the grocery, to the school to pick up their kids, to a neighbors etc. They are also a usual venue for neighborhood plumbers, electricians, and other handymen to advertise their services. This gave women the impression that just like a busted pipe or TV set, spousal abuse was just as easy to fix.

Results

The implementation of the postering campaign was done in waves, moving from one small neighborhood to the next. In the initial community of Tondo in Manila, the Gabriela office had reported an average of 5 calls per day prior to the campaign. Upon implementation the average doubled. The campaign moved on to 4 other Manila neighborhoods in 2008. By the end of the year, Philippine National Police figures showed that reported cases of spousal abuse in Manila had risen by 21% from year before.