NFL Abuse Awareness Month

Why We Are Advertising:

To educate teen and college-aged women about emotional abuse and encourage them to take action
and when they recognize a friend is in an emotionally abusive relationship.
Target Audience:
Young women in their teens and college years who know a friend in an unhealthy relationship, we
are talking to the Concerned Bystander. They, and maybe others, know their friend is not in a healthy
relationship, but dont realize many of the things they see are red flags for emotionally abusive
behavior. They want to help their friend, but they dont know how to approach them or how they can
help them change their situation.
I know a friend in a bad relationship. She constantly complains of him being overly jealous, and Ive
seen her cry when he yells at her for talking to other guy friends. I know he has even threatened to
leave her, which scares her because she is so attached to him. Lately, I feel like she is slipping away
from me, but I know he is unhealthy for her. Am I wrong in thinking that she should break up with him?
How do I even approach her with that? Is what he is doing even wrong?
Promise / Take Away:
Young women will be able to identify red flags for emotional abuse and will know how to approach a
friend in an abusive relationship and direct them to support resources.
Supports:
Emotional abuse often is overlooked, especially when most societys perceptions of abuse are
often tied to physical violence.
Young women often fail to recognize when they are in an emotionally abusive relationship.
Friends of these victims often want to help, but dont know how.
Education on how and where to get support is critical to these womens emotional stability,
self-image, and personal values.
Consumer Insights:
When I see a friend in a questionable relationship, I often dont know where the line needs to be
drawn. I want them to feel like they can trust me, and I want to know how I can help them.
Tonality:
Empowering, human, assertive
Mandatories:
Information of support resources chosen for campaign
Positive, clear sponsorship message connecting the NFLs support to the campaign
Creative Sparks:
If I saw something that said: You need help, I would have said, oh that doesnt apply to me. If
a friend approached me and we had that conversation, that wouldve stopped and made me
think.
The idea of telling a stranger this stuff bothers me. Theyre professionals, but I would not make
the choice to go to counseling on my own.

Emotional abusive and healthy relationships are never discussed in school, and if they are its
very vague. This is my first serious boyfriend, and I dont know what the norm is for a healthy
relationship.

Analysis
Intro
We began our dive into the somewhat dark world of domestic abuse by investigating the different types of
abuse. There are six types of domestic abuse, but very early on we came to find some were much more
prevalent than others in terms of societal recognition. The term abuse seems to have connotations of physical
violence in the minds of most people, and a lot of our secondary research supports this.
Primary and Secondary Research
A study by Ashanti E. Anderson of Xavier University showed physical abuse is seen as the most abusive form of
domestic abuse, followed by social abuse, with emotional abuse being perceived as the least abusive. In the
study, 97% agreed that a husband punching his wife was abusive, only 46% considered a man following a
woman a form of abuse, and a mere 29% felt that a husband insulting his wife by calling her a stupid slob was
abusive. In addition to this, despite three-fourths of college women reporting that they have been physiologically
abused, emotional abuse tends to be largely invisible. Unfortunately, this type of abuse is arguably the most
damaging in the long-run, as victims are six times more likely to suffer from major depression when compared to
victims of physical abuse.
Another survey concluded that emotional abuse of teen women occurs in all social classes, races, ethnic
groups, sexualities, and environmental settings (i.e. rural and urban).
From a legal standpoint, recent legislation, such as the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, focuses largely on
stopping and punishing physical abuse rather than emotional.
After a long discussion, we concluded that teen and college women should be our target audience, as they are
entering a time period in which they enter long-term, serious relationships for the first time. Often inexperienced
with relationships and increasingly conscious of body image and finding their true self, this developmental
period is critical to young women finding their way in life, and emotional abuse can cripple their physiological
growth and distort their views of a normal and healthy relationship.
In addition to our secondary research, we also conducted in-depth interviews with a MU sociology professor,
several college-aged women, a college woman who was a victim of an emotionally abusive relationship, and a
teacher for children from at risk homes.
According to the sociology professor, despite being pervasive in todays society, a lot of recent pop culture, such
as Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey, tends to normalize emotionally abusive relationships.
When we talked with the college women, many of them were confused with how to define emotional abuse.
Does one time count, or does it have to be more than once to be abuse? These young women saw emotional
abuse as a type of domestic abuse, but agreed that emotional abuse is often overlooked. They also perceived
todays media and the general public as being largely unaware of emotional abuse. Kathy Claywell, a teacher for
at risk kids, reiterated this theme of people minimizing emotional abuse. According to her experience, many of
the kids and couples she works with dont consider emotional abuse as a form of domestic abuse.
Initially, we thought educating the victims of emotional abuse was the key to recognition and prevention. But
after engaging in an in-depth interview with a previous victim, we shifted our original thinking. We discovered
that victims dont listen to messages being shouted at them from unfamiliar sources (campaigns,
advertisements, videos). If the message wasnt personalized, the victim often didnt correlate it to her own
situation. It took a friend or person close to them to help them recognize the abuse.


Its important for her to take action on behalf of her friend, because young women in their first relationships often
normalize abusive behavior, dismiss it as isolated occurrences, or excuse the abuser by wrongly blaming
themselves. Teen and college victims are very unlikely to reach out for help, especially to parents, because they
want to feel like they can take care of themselves or are scared of their friends judging them. Emotional abuse,
although extremely damaging in itself, often escalates to physical abuse, which leads to additional problems and
complications
Key Insight
Often, people in abusive relationships justify the actions of the abuser and dont recognize the abuse.
Sometimes, the only thing that will make them reevaluate their relationship is a friend who cares enough to
intervene.
Briefing Ideas
Often people dont empathize or relate to a situation unless its put into a personal context. To drive this point
home, we will present a slideshow to the team. Each slide would have a quote. Each quote or hypothetical
situation will demonstrate a different type of abuse. Further along in the presentation, each quote will escalate to
a more extreme example. For example, starting off with: You cant talk to other guys. I thought we had
something special? To: I cant imagine life without you, Ill kill myself if you leave me. The reason behind
showing the escalating examples is to show that emotional abuse often isnt obvious at the start.
After each quote, we will ask the team how they would feel if they heard a stranger being talked to this way and
if they would do anything about it. This is to get the team warmed up to talking about emotional abuse.
The presentation will go through each quote again, but this time a picture of a team members friend (taken from
Facebook) will appear above the lines of text. This is to make a personal connection between emotional abuse
and someone close to them. This completes the idea that you wouldnt want your best friend, little sister or
anyone else you care about to be treated that way.
We will then ask the same question after each quote, how they would feel if the quotes were directed towards
their friend in the picture and if they would do anything about it. We will allow team members to explain how they
would help their friend out of an abusive relationship and what resources they would direct them to. After their
responses, we will present the creative brief.
The goal of this briefing is for the team to recognize that emotional abuse can come in many forms and
sometimes it takes the initiative of a friend to help.

Bibliography
Primary Sources:
In-depth interviews:
Kristin Wayman and Danielle Baker senior students at MU
Emotionally abused victim (asked not to be identified) junior student at MU
Secondary Sources:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/02/20/signs-of-emotional-abuse/
http://www.aedv.org/index.php/domestic-violence-facts
http://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/local/windsor/opinion/2014/09/30/squicquero-offersupport-see-domestic-violence/16428225/


http://www.focusonthefamily.com/lifechallenges/abuse_and_addiction/understanding_emotio
nal_abuse/faqs_about_emotional_abuse.aspx
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/domestic_violence_abuse_types_signs_causes_effects.htm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-hendriksen-phd/domesticviolence_b_5892034.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000046&ir=Women
http://www.ncadv.org/files/PsychologicalAbuse.pdf
http://www.nextavenue.org/blog/domestic-violence-can-worsen-couples-age
http://www.springtideresources.org/resource/emotional-abuse-women-their-intimate-partnersliterature-review
INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND THE HEALTHCARE PROVIDER (On-Line Self Learning
Packet) Author: Pat Buenz MSN