“A Spanish organization called Fundación ANAR, or Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk, created a bus-stop advertisement in April that features the group’s hotline number for children to report abuse.
But by using a process called lenticular photography, the company made the hotline number, and much of the ad’s content, visible only to those under a certain height — presumably children.”
This comes from Betsey Issacson, writer for the Huffington Post.
In the eyes of anyone over 4’5”, the ad mentioned above features a solemn-faced boy, under the words, “Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.”
However, those shorter than 4’5” see the boy with bruises to his face and a bleeding lip. The ad is supposed to target abused children who don’t know how to get out of their situation. The ad offers a hidden hotline number for the child to call.
The idea is that if the kid passes by the ad with their abuser, the abuser won’t realize that their victim is now equipped with a resource to stop the abuse.
Lenticular photography is no new phenomenon, but its use in this sense is revolutionary. As such, the YouTube video spread the organizations message and gained viral popularity.
This could however be considered counterproductive.
The company’s ad campaign creators say “thanks to the publicity on media and all the comments on social networks, the campaign has achieved its main objective: Raise awareness of the Foundation and [its] phone number 116-111 for children and teenagers at risk.”
I was under the impression that the goal was for primarily children to take note of the ad, but now, virtually, the entire developed world knows of this campaign strategy, including child abusers.
It’s already difficult enough to get children to report abuse, but now a great idea may just deter abusers from walking past the sign, if they see it ahead.
This is obvious in high abuse nations like Costa Rica, as reported by its English language news source, Inside Costa Rica.
“According to the 911 Emergency Services, the month of December brought a total of 2,296 calls regarding violence against children – victims of physical, sexual and psychological violence.”
Rodolfo Hernandez, director of the National Children’s Hospital there said there had been a 600% increase in the number of child abuse cases reported between January 2007 and January 2012.
Even though the number of reports had increased, this implies the “epidemic” of child abuse increased too.
Maybe Costa Rica could take a similar approach to reaching children as its colonizer, Spain, and use hidden messages.
Globalization and Digital Technology 