LX LITTLEWOODS DIRECT THINK MALE DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS ARE FUNNY

One of the many this site's kind readers brought up a LX Liitlewoods Direct viral campaign which is available on YouTube. It was used as a Christmas viral advertising campaign in 2005 and shows four men in casualty that have been harmed by women, including one man with a stiletto embedded in his skull. It is based on their campaign about "What Women Won't Want For Christmas".

They seem quite pleased with themselves that the campaign was a success (link) and Mr Funny,  Michael Duffy, Head of Online at LX Direct said, " We wanted to investigate if they would respond to a viral campaign that was a bit more off-the-wall than normal".

The two points here:-

Firstly, LX Littlewoods Direct would never, and rightly so, create an advert that showed battered women in casualty with a tag-line "What Men Won't Want For Christmas". It wouldn't even enter their thick head, but an advert showing the same against men is fine by them. It was a similar issue to the MFA advert (link), the Superdrug Punchbag (link) and the All men Are Bastards Knifeblock (link).

Secondly, a common thread coming through much of the media coverage on the subject recently was that men as domestic abuse victims are not taken seriously by society at all. This was a brick wall that male victims were facing and remember that as many men are victims of severe force in a relationship as women.

p>The viral advert is below:-

Comments

[Jonno]

It sometimes looks like an uphill battle...it's no longer about society 'redressing the balance' of discrimination towards women. It's now become the norm, it seems.

One sided. The worst thing is that often (as in this case), it's men perpetrating the crimes against their fellow men, under the guise of "it's harmless fun".

If battering a women can NEVER be seen as harmless fun (and that is always my view), then battering men can NEVER be seen as harmless fun.

[Fergus Hammond]

I looked at the ad and thought it was fairly harmless myself. It's just too slapstick to be taken seriously. Most humour is about exaggeration of reality.

In Tom & Jerry there's violence all the time, but no-one could say the makers condone cruelty to animals. Over the weekend I watched a rerun of 'A Fish Called Wanda'. There was a mock torture scene in it, which was funny - but again I don't think anyone thought the makers of the movie condoned torture.

I can see the point about reversing the situation - and featuring women would indeed seem less suitable. So although I still think this viral is tame, I agree there's inconsistency in how media will consider the sensitivities of some men vs women. Interesting debate!

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