NFL Brings a Domestic-Abuse Ad to Super Bowl

[question everything]

Source: WSJ

Most of this year’s Super Bowl ads will feature the usual light-hearted themes, mixing humor, celebrities and animals. But one TV spot, courtesy of the National Football League itself, will strike a decidedly serious tone.

The NFL is backing a public-service announcement from No More, an umbrella organization for groups working to combat domestic violence and sexual assault. The commercial features a woman talking to a 911 operator and pretending to order a pizza, speaking cryptically to alert the authorities that she needs help without tipping off her attacker.

The NFL has been battling the perception that it doesn’t take domestic abuse seriously. It came under withering criticism last year for its handling of a case involving former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who struck his now-wife in an Atlantic City elevator... Airing the public-service message on football’s biggest stage shows the NFL is acutely aware it needs to repair damage to the sport’s image from the Rice scandal and other recent incidents.

The league’s ad agency created the spot at no charge and the NFL is donating some of its airtime in the Feb. 1 telecast on NBC, where ad time costs roughly $4.5 million for 30 seconds. There are risks in running an ad with a somber tone, tackling a sensitive issue, on a night when most commercials are meant to elicit yuks or be uplifting.

(snip)

In the Super Bowl ad, the 911 call plays as the camera pans around a house showing the aftereffects of a domestic dispute—objects strewn across a rumpled living-room rug, a punched wall, a family photo lying next to the trash. The dispatcher gradually figures out the victim needs help, not pizza, and sends it. “Is there someone in the room with you—just say yes or no,” he says. “Yes,” the victim responds.


Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/nfl-brings-a-domestic-abuse-ad-to-super-bowl-1422309614

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Here is a link to the ad

http://time.com/3684144/super-bowl-nfl-domestic-violence-ad/

[iandhr]

1. Wow

That is powerful. There was another one that No More did with NFL players silent on screen. It ended with "domestic violence is a hard subject to discuss. Help us start the conversation."

[jen1980]

2. Pretending to care

is not caring.

[F4lconF16]

3. +1

It's a start, though, and it least it shows they'll listen if public backlash is large enough.

[question everything]

4. And tackle the problem of football players and soldiers

who are told to be aggressive in the field, but nothing about turning it off away from the field.

[mahannah]

5. Run the ad every break during SB.