It is not the first time that an advertising campaign is carried out with catalog images, nor the first that "positive" messages are used to encourage victims of gender violence to report and ask for help. But, on this occasion, these circumstances, together with a political context of strong polarization around all issues related to Equality policies, have dynamited all the political consensus so far in Andalusia around sexist violence, by precarious Let them go.
The PSOE and Podemos have asked the Board to withdraw the last media campaign presented last week to offer a frivolous and banal image of gender violence.
The campaign, which bears the motto "But life is always stronger", presents a series of women, smiling and happy, having overcome a situation of abuse. According to the agency responsible for the product, Conzeta Advertising, the goal is to convey that you can leave, "that you can have a normal life again, that you can smile again."
Along the same lines, both the president of the Board, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, and the head of the Ministry of Equality and Social Policies, Rocío Ruiz, have defended the campaign, who have reiterated the need to offer "hope" to women who are victims of gender violence.
But what did the PSOE and Podemos not like about this campaign?
Women who smile
. To begin with, PSOE and Podemos have criticized the fact that the posters and video show women smiling who, in their opinion, banal or minimize the seriousness of the problem. Other previous campaigns of the Junta de Andalucía had also emphasized these messages of encouragement to women, without giving rise to reactions such as those of recent days. For example, in 2013, the Junta de Andalucía, through the Andalusian Institute of Women, launched a campaign that bore the motto "You deserve a better life". Then, also the main image that appeared on the posters was that of a happy woman playing with a baby in a playground.
"Transmitting a positive message of hope is also effective and reaches the public, as can be seen in awareness campaigns such as those carried out for the fight against cancer, which show how people get ahead and recover their lives after overcoming a very difficult situation" , says the agency Conzeta Advertising in defense of its creation.
But it is that, in addition, both the State Pact against Gender Violence, at its 23rd point, and Law 7/2018, of July 30, which reformed and updated the Andalusian Law of integral protection against Gender Violence , encourages the use of positive messages, which include the terms "victim" and "survivor". Specifically, in the text of the pact, you are invited to flee the cliché of the victims and "present examples of strong and brave women."
Models and not real victims
It has also contributed to the controversy that, in a dramatization exercise, the agency introduced a text in the first frame of its announcement warning that the women who were appealing in the images had been victims of ill-treatment. In reality, those faces are not those of real victims, but catalog models that agencies use in their creations for all types of products. The agency wanted to play with the classic "based on real events" used in the cinema looking for perhaps the empathy of the public but also the surprise effect, because those who expected faces of suffering and pain were later with gestures of happiness.
But it is true that this script could lead to error and the counselor, Rocío Ruiz, spoke of "real" women during the presentation of the campaign to the media, abounding in confusion. "The women who appear are actresses as in any other advertising campaign. It would have been irresponsible to use real women who have suffered ill-treatment, since their security would have been jeopardized," the agency said Monday in a note sent to the media. "The images used are from an image bank, similar to those used by many brands and institutions for their campaigns," he explained.
We are, therefore, facing an "advertising fiction" like so many others that are used in all types of campaigns, also in those that present women with clear signs of violence.
The use of the term 'abuse'
The use of the term 'ill-treatment' is now inappropriate to refer to situations of sexist violence, according to the Secretary of Equality of the Andalusian PSOE, Soledad Pérez, who says that it is an expression that has been obsolete since the 1990s. a comment published through social networks: "This is the consequence of a government #PPCsVOX, a campaign that does not talk about #ViolenciaDeGenero, which hides machismo, and where Women do not suffer. Sad to talk about abuse, we haven't done it since the 90s of the last century. "
But, it is not true that there is no talk of "gender violence" in the campaign, as the expression is included in the script. In addition, regardless of the semantic reasons for the rejection of the term "ill-treatment", which the socialist leader does not explain, this is a formula that is present in the Andalusian Law against Gender Violence (art. 41), which speaks of "situations of mistreatment of women", and which is still frequently used in official reports, for example, by the Ombudsman of Andalusia.
Campaign change, message change
The "But life is always stronger" campaign promoted by the Andalusian Government replaces a previous one approved by the Government of Susana Díaz that, despite being already presented, did not spread through the media because the contest It was appealed. In that previous campaign, which should have been issued in November 2018, the motto was "Take action." With her, as it was said then, it was intended to "place the whole society and the victim's environment as the protagonist of the fight against gender violence" and appealed "to citizen activism."
Sources of the Ministry of Equality have explained to EL MUNDO that for the dissemination of the new campaign the 1.2 million euros that were not used in the previous campaign will be used. One million euros comes from the funds linked to the State Pact against Gender Violence and the remaining 200,000 will be provided by the General Directorate for Gender Violence, Equality of Treatment and Diversity.
Those same sources have explained that the Ministry of Equality has not used the resources of the previous campaign because it wanted to take a more "positive" turn to its message in the fight against gender violence.
The change of the government in the Board, background of the controversy
. The controversy over the Andalusian Women's Institute campaign is not understood without the change of government in the Junta de Andalucía. PSOE and Podemos have called into question all the initiatives of the Government formed by the PP and Citizens, whom they point out for allegedly submitting to the requirements of Vox in matters of Equality. However, in the Budgets for 2019, the funds allocated to the Andalusian Women's Institute, far from diminishing, as Vox intended, have increased. The Minister of Equality and Social Policies, Rocío Ruiz, defended on Monday in a statement to the media that this campaign "has renewed the unwavering commitment of the Andalusian Government against gender violence." "In the budgets of this year the bet for the Andalusian Institute of Women has been redoubled, increasing its budget by 400,000 euros and increasing the funds for the creation of the largest network of European Municipal Information Centers for Women (CMIM) , among other measures, "explained the counselor.
However, from the Vox municipal group they insist on pressuring the Government to suppress activities linked to Equality policies. Today, his spokesman in the Andalusian Parliament, Alejandro Hernández, claimed to eliminate the activities of the Andalusian Institute of Women "that are not of public utility" and that cost "a lot of money" to the Andalusians. In an interview with Europa Press, he also acknowledged that, at the moment, there is no negotiation to replace the Andalusian Institute for Women with an Andalusian Institute of Victims of Domestic Violence, a proposal launched during the final debate in Parliament's budget of 2019.
In any case, the constant diatribes of Vox against the policies of Equality, questioning the personnel that evaluates the cases of gender violence or denying the existence of the wage gap, give wings and arguments to the opposition to call into question any initiative in this regard in a government that depends on Vox to approve the strategic lines of its program.
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