A third of young women have been in a controlling relationship
On February 12th ahead of Valentine’s Day, markettiers worked alongside Halpern PR to highlight Avon and Women’s Aid partnership in a bid to raise awareness of the term coercive control with the aim of protecting young women from controlling relationships and to help people identify the fine line between love and fear.
The partnership saw the launch of the “LOVE DON’T FEEL BAD” campaign (www.lovedontfeelbad.co.uk) following a report revealing that nearly two thirds of people don’t know what coercive control is, and that 1 in 5 women only realised they were being controlled once the relationship was over.
A surprising 1 in 20 believe being scared of your partner is normal and 1 in 10 also believe they are to blame. A new domestic abuse law – the coercive control offence – carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and came into effect in December 2015.
markettiers was tasked to raise awareness through broadcast and utilised the 12th as a news hook to highlight that not all relationships have a happy ending. The campaign’s spokespeople were Polly Neate, CEO Women’s Aid, and Chlo, 18 – a highly pertinent case study and campaigner against domestic abuse – discussing her own experience.
The campaign saw a great range of interest, kicking off with a pre-recorded interview the day before the launch with Polly on Sky News Radio – the main supplier of news to all the UK’s commercial radio stations feeding content to more than 300 stations and their websites via live bulletins and a 24-hour feed of scripts and audio material.
On the main day of activity, we saw coverage on BBC2 and BBC News Channel’s the Victoria Derbyshire show, with both Polly and Chlo on the sofa, while the rest of the day saw a raft of interviews with highlights including a great interview with BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, national opportunities with BBC Scotland and BBC Wales, regional coverage including Capital Liverpool, BBC Newcastle and the Breeze Network, as well as online placements on sites such as Closer and Glamour.