Campaigns to End Violence against Women and Girls - Virtual ...

media specialists need to be involved to design effective mass media announcements,
since PSA production and broadcasting can be costly, and the design must be based on
quality formative research on target audiences.
Example: UNIFEM and PAHO collaborated in 2003 on a PSA called ‘Violence Against
Women: Not A Minute More’. The PSA was distributed in Spanish, English and
Portuguese to more than 300 TV and cable stations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Watch the PSA here.
Case study: Breakthrough
This US and India-based human rights organisation launched its ‘Bell Bajao!/Ring the
Bell’ campaign in 2008 to call on men and boys across India to take a stand against
domestic violence (DV), by performing a simple bystander intervention – ringing the door
bell when they witnessed DV taking place. The campaign’s integrated cultural,
organizing and media strategy sought to make the issue part of mainstream
conversation; increase knowledge about and change community attitudes towards DV
and towards HIV-positive women; and alter individual behaviour. By end 2010, with
support of the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, through their
PSAs on television, radio and print, their online multimedia campaign, educational
materials and travelling video van, over 130 million people had been reached.
The Bell Bajao PSAs depict men and boys who hear men shouting, women crying and
objects falling – indicating incidence of domestic violence. They find an excuse to
interrupt the violence by ringing the doorbell and asking the abuser who appears in the
doorway for a small, unrelated and unnecessary service. It is clear to the audience that
the bell-ringer is just doing it as an ‘excuse’ to intervene, to halt the violence. See PSA
“software engineer”. Mobile video vans broadcasting the campaign PSAs allowed youth
advocates to engage directly with individuals and encourage community involvement
and participation through games, puppetry, street theater and quizzes.
See the full Bell Bajao case study.
Access the Bell Bajao Campaign.
See the Bell Bajao PSAs.
Other Ilustrative PSAs:
� The Jagori “Staring Hurts” PSA against sexual harassment in India is part of its
Safe Delhi Campaign.
� Youth Voices on Ending Violence against Women produced by the Secretary-
General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women Campaign.
EDUCATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT (“EDUTAINMENT”)
Edutainment is entertainment designed to educate as well as inform or amuse. TV and
radio serial dramas (“soap operas”) are the best-known contemporary forms of
edutainment, and widely used especially across Latin America and Asia. They appeal to
their viewers’ minds and emotions, developing multi-layered storylines inspired by
people’s daily lives over successive installments. Their characters offer opportunities for
emotional identification and role modeling. Popular series maintain long-term contact
207
Campaigns December 2011