A good advertisement, regardless of subject, will plant a seed in the viewer’s mind, leaving the viewer with an emotional response to the ad. Sometimes, this seed will sprout into a disgust towards a targeted idea. It will leave you remembering it for days to come, and compel you to act upon a new feeling. Take for example, the Australian Childhood Foundation created a series of posters to target an issue that many people know about, but do not regularly act upon. Child abuse and negligence occur within households everywhere, indiscriminately towards any country, culture, or household. Just in the United States alone, “an estimated 679,000 children were victims of abuse and neglect” in 2013, and this number does not include the thousands
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The statistics are disturbing, and only intensified with the knowledge that it can happen to anyone, anytime. And for children, it is especially urgent. Children are often unable to speak out against the adults, afraid of repercussions. For their own “care”-taker to hurt them is absolutely disconcerting; many are unable to understand that they did not do anything to deserve abuse, or that they may be able to escape from it.
The Australian Childhood Foundation takes the issue of childhood adversity into the streets of Australia, hidden amongst busy streets. The advertisement takes form with a plain, white poster around 5’ in height, crinkled and worn out not unlike many of the posters littered along the old concrete walls. Black text is aligned just at eye level for the average adult, and this text reads: “Neglected children are made to feel invisible.” 1 The spotlight of this advertisement is a mannequin, just under 3’ in height and dressed in a child’s jeans and sneakers; the child stands against the wall, solidary. The most striking trait of this child, and ultimately the advertisement, is how the child is being covered by the white poster, only the knees down visible to an onlooker. The …show more content…
However, out of the 700,000+ children, it is not unlikely for a majority of these children to have come in contact with a variety of systems, neighbors, teachers, and people in authority. Of the numerous people who come in contact with a child who may be experiencing childhood adversity, it only takes one person, whether it be a police officer making daily rounds or a neighbor happening to hear alarming noises from behind the walls, to start a change in that child’s life. Childhood adversity is not an issue that can continue to be cautiously tip-toed around; it must be urgently addressed and acknowledged, rather than being treated as a taboo. It is a call for people to stop passively separating ourselves from other people’s lives, and instead find the courage within all of us to make the first step, to start a connection. Because a connection is the first step to saving a child from the effects of what could possibly be a household of physical abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, negligence, or any of forms of childhood
The statistics are disturbing, and only intensified with the knowledge that it can happen to anyone, anytime. And for children, it is especially urgent. Children are often unable to speak out against the adults, afraid of repercussions. For their own “care”-taker to hurt them is absolutely disconcerting; many are unable to understand that they did not do anything to deserve abuse, or that they may be able to escape from it.
The Australian Childhood Foundation takes the issue of childhood adversity into the streets of Australia, hidden amongst busy streets. The advertisement takes form with a plain, white poster around 5’ in height, crinkled and worn out not unlike many of the posters littered along the old concrete walls. Black text is aligned just at eye level for the average adult, and this text reads: “Neglected children are made to feel invisible.” 1 The spotlight of this advertisement is a mannequin, just under 3’ in height and dressed in a child’s jeans and sneakers; the child stands against the wall, solidary. The most striking trait of this child, and ultimately the advertisement, is how the child is being covered by the white poster, only the knees down visible to an onlooker. The …show more content…
However, out of the 700,000+ children, it is not unlikely for a majority of these children to have come in contact with a variety of systems, neighbors, teachers, and people in authority. Of the numerous people who come in contact with a child who may be experiencing childhood adversity, it only takes one person, whether it be a police officer making daily rounds or a neighbor happening to hear alarming noises from behind the walls, to start a change in that child’s life. Childhood adversity is not an issue that can continue to be cautiously tip-toed around; it must be urgently addressed and acknowledged, rather than being treated as a taboo. It is a call for people to stop passively separating ourselves from other people’s lives, and instead find the courage within all of us to make the first step, to start a connection. Because a connection is the first step to saving a child from the effects of what could possibly be a household of physical abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, negligence, or any of forms of childhood