Victimization Experience and Perceived Benefits of Institutional and Commercial Advertising Campaigns in the Fight against Domestic Violence

Abstract

Advertising has played an increasingly relevant role in raising awareness of social problems via institutional campaigns. In the phenomenon of domestic violence, most institutional advertising campaigns are directed at victims, who are often represented as vulnerable people. The general objective of this explorative study was to ascertain, from the point of view of victims of domestic violence, what the contributions of advertising campaigns are in combating this phenomenon. Stemming from a previous study on institutional advertising campaigns on domestic violence, which included a survey with about 500 participants residing in Portugal, a focus group was carried out with 4 participants who declared that they had been victims of domestic violence. The data were subjected to thematic analysis, and two major themes were identified: A: the effectiveness of advertising campaigns on the prevention of domestic violence and B: domestic violence and the fight against it via advertising strategies. The results suggest that advertising is a useful tool for social transformation, which has contributed to the social awareness of the problem of domestic violence. There is no consensus that the shock strategy of certain advertisements has the desired effects nor that campaigns should only focus on victims. It was suggested that the campaigns should be extended to the aggressors and that the theme should also be introduced in schools. The discussion made it possible to question the characteristics of advertising campaigns and to propose new directions in this field for the prevention of the phenomenon.