In the 1990s something happened to public awareness campaigns; they became interesting. No longer advice-laden missives, campaign materials became eye-catching and thought provoking. During this decade, one campaign was hugely influential in its impact on a number of different levels; this campaign was Zero Tolerance. The campaign has promulgated a rash of copycat images not only from campaigns on other issues but also mainstream advertisers. Governments, initially surprised by the impact of feminist-led campaigns, have started to show interest in this transformation of a form of communication that has been around for a long time.

Public-awareness campaigns have attracted interest, not only from government but also within academia. Political science, communication studies, criminology, psychology and sociology have all examined public-awareness campaigns and usually the focus is on the impact and influence of campaigns on individuals and society (Leiss, 1987). Rather than simply examining the effectiveness of campaigns, this article questions why campaigns are seen as socially necessary. It is not enough to consider how the message is received, of equal importance is how it is conceived (Burton, 1990). A critical approach is important in uncovering the exercise of power contained within campaigns.

Campaign messages are not neutral. They are socially constructed and represent vested interests. Friere (1970) has argued that knowledge is created through the human act of ‘naming’ but ‘naming’ is not a process of objectively describing some ‘truth’ but rather an expression of a particular viewpoint. Any critical theory must therefore consider the context of knowledge creation and as Smith (1978) highlights, the context of knowledge production has traditionally excluded women from participation. Instead, governments and corporate bodies have dominated knowledge production, generally for economic and political purposes.

Certainly, companies and organisations have used visual images to promote their goods and services since the birth of advertising (Leiss, 1987). From leaflets and posters to radio and TV, advertising can increase awareness and inform the public. There is little doubt that advertising has become increasingly sophisticated during the latter half of the twentieth century, however, advertising is not usually seen an effective tool for conveying complex issues or promoting attitudinal change (Benady, 1994). Although public awareness campaigns use many of the strategies of advertising to get the message across, often relying on images and slogans to promote their message, the aim of a campaign is not to sell a product but to sell an idea, challenge existing behaviour and so effect change.

Chris Baker, convenor of judges of the IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards has argued that advertising strategies are more effective on social issues than on the sale of frozen peas. While everyone has an opinion on peas, concepts are harder to pin down and attitudes can be shifted if emotions are aroused within the target audience (cited in Benady, 1994).

For campaigns on social issues, a simple but focussed message is often the most effective form of communication (Leiss, 1987). Messages need to be clear, concise and relevant. It is through the use of simple images and snappy slogans that the public absorbs the message. This can open the door to public debate and help the ideas behind the slogans gain political legitimacy (Pahl, 1985).

It is assumed that the intentions of public-awareness campaigns are benevolent (DETR, 1997). They are to warn of harm, to protect citizens and preserve rights and freedoms. The state as ‘protector’, uses public-awareness campaigns to communicate, inform and educate the public. This article examines the emergence of public awareness campaigns and of primary interest is why the state should, in the face of competing social needs, provide the enormous resources necessary in mounting campaigns? But it is important to bear in mind that campaigns are political vehicles, used to convey ideological messages (Gamman & Marshment, 1988; Baeher & Gray, 1996). Whatever the focus or subject matter, traditionally campaigns have focused on controlling behaviour, creating order and securing social consensus; there is a design, constructed to convey a message to a particular audience. Generally, campaigns emerge out of social concern or even crisis. Put simply, the aim of most campaigns is control a particular social problem, making it easier for the state to function, be it on a local or national level.

The article also examines how campaign materials identify and communicate with its target audience. Fundamentally, if a campaign fails to speak effectively to those who most need the message, then the message will be lost. Of particular interest therefore is the interaction between the campaign development and existing knowledge and research.

Campaigns are not a new phenomenon. Posters used to instil moral ‘norms’ and promote collective action were evident during the Second World War and the propaganda machine specifically targeted women to ‘do their bit’ (Colman, 1995; Hanson, 1996; Dougherty Delano, 2000). Women became the targets of campaigns, which sought to highlight their social position and their social responsibilities. More recently, ‘drink-driving’ campaigns, generally assumed to be gender neutral, illustrate how campaigns develop over time. But a consequence of the political dominance driving public-awareness campaigns, is that other sources of knowledge are often ignored or made senseless as they ‘do not fit’ within the logic of the existing system. These ‘subjugated knowledges’ (Foucault, 1980), including those from a feminist perspective, risk marginalisation. The state’s role within drink driving campaigns is accepted as legitimate, seen as part of a crime prevention initiative. By comparison, crimes against women have until recently been seen as individualistic acts, not a societal problem (Stanko, 1985; Kelly, 1988).

Whilst public-awareness campaigns endorsed by the state may appear ideologically neutral, the Zero Tolerance Campaign’s feminist background was never denied (Foley, 1993; Kitzinger & Hunt, 1994). The Zero Tolerance campaign, was (and remains) concerned with change, through challenging traditional views and pointing out the lie that lurks beneath the claim of social equality between the sexes. Three factors remain central to the power of the Zero Tolerance campaign. Firstly its grounding in a feminist understanding of male violence against women, secondly its consistency of approach and finally its repetition of its simple basic message.

Knowledge creation is never divorced from human interest (Habermas, 1971). The ideas and images used within public-awareness campaigns are manufactured for a purpose, generally to create a world that explains and justifies action. Such use of knowledge constitutes an exercise of power. Certainly, if the intention of public-awareness campaigns were merely to inform, there would be no concern for potential behavioural or attitudinal change. By selecting the information included in such campaigns, the ideological imperatives of the knowledge producers and controllers determines the distribution of knowledge. The messages are not necessarily for the ‘good’ of the recipients but rather suit the purposes of the message producers (Jowett & O’Donnell, 1986).

An example of how public awareness campaigns have been used to capture the hearts and minds of the public is the propaganda war fought during the Second World War. In the UK and the US, governments launched campaigns aimed to stir up patriotism and secure public support. The posters used generally took one of two forms, the ‘can do’ and the ‘don’t do’; the former used images of fearless individuals, strong and confident, while the latter played on public fear and concerns.

For many women, acute wartime labour shortage provided the first opportunity to participate in the workforce (Woollacott, 1994; Summerfield, 1995). More than that, it has been argued that "The conditions for the renewal of feminism … were provided by the Second World War" (Meehan, 1985:35). ‘Can do’ publicity campaigns were particularly aimed at women who had never before held jobs but, far from being feminist in nature, the images used sought to glamorise the jobs, accentuating the feminine qualities of the women performing them.

Of all the images used on posters at this time, perhaps the most famous was that of Rosie the Riveter--the patriotic female factory worker; she was tough but she still had her lipstick and mascara (Colman, 1995). The message for women was that the compromise between femininity and employment was achievable. She was described as "…the symbol of a generation of American women who rolled up their sleeves and went to work during World War II. Rosie the Riveter, red bandanna wrapped about her head, embodied the "We Can Do It" spirit" (Hanson, 1996:44). The ‘can do’ poster was directed at young women, generally unmarried, who could do the work until the men came back, at which time they would presumably be expected to settle down to domesticity, hand the jobs back to the men and have babies.

What view of reality is being proposed here? The state needed women in the workforce and in this respect the posters were reassuring women that they could ‘do it’. But at the same time, there was concern that gender roles should not become too blurred. It was one thing to exploit their labour but the state did not really want women to secure any long lasting social liberation. Women might be able to work but they would work within male defined confines. Recruiting women into the workforce whilst painting a picture (quite literally) of how women should look, meant that their role as ‘women’ was not changing and that their labour was not meant to threaten the status quo.

Such posters served to set the agenda around the labour shortage. By making women feel responsible for doing ‘their bit’, attention could be diverted away from government activity. Writing in America, Margaret Mead (1946), argued that women experienced the war not in a collective sense, but as individuals, through the absence of the men they loved. But the poster propaganda, by focusing on local problems (labour shortage), diverted public attention and debate away from issues such as foreign policy, military spending and war crimes. The call to patriotic duty re-enforced the ideological message that the whole population was pulling in the same direction (Summerfield, 1995).

By comparison, the ‘don’t do’ posters were designed to startle and provoke people out of their indifference with images and messages that were meant to be shocking. The posters pointed to the enemy within and this enemy was likely to be a woman. Many of the posters played on the fears held by the public. ‘Walls have ears’ and ‘careless talk costs lives’ ensured that the public was aware of its duty to safeguard against enemy spies. Rupp argues that a "new woman" with strong sense of citizenship emerged, "She wore simple clothes and sensible shoes, used lipstick, powder and fixed her hair in a short, smooth, neat style, and did not indulge as much as she had before the war in coffee drinking, smoking or gossiping." (1978:145-6)

But for all that they were still ordinary women, someone’s wife or mother and that is how they were depicted, but the text informs the public that she has cost lives through her ‘careless talk’. The design of this poster, using a photograph of an ordinary looking woman and text which is provocative, gave an uncompromising message and it is the incongruity of the image and the text that has impact.

The emotional appeal of the messages contained in the posters, the simplicity of the slogans and compelling nature of the images highlights the ready acceptance of what would now be called a ‘sound bite’. This visual media helped to make sense of severe social disruption and not only gave women a role in securing the safety of the country but also acted to re-enforce their femininity at the same time.

The impact of such campaigns should not be under-estimated. The re-enforcement of gender stereotypes, the promotion of public anxiety and the construction of a patriotic moral consensus reduced the potential for dissent and social unrest. But despite the aim of promoting social cohesion, public-awareness campaigns also provoked social change (Rowbotham, 1973; Braybon & Summerfield, 1987). Women, the primary target of the campaigns, took on social responsibilities, which after the war, many women were either reluctant or unable to discard. Working women do not simply produce goods but also produce a cultural identity. Butler has argued how gender is constituted through performance; that gender identities gain their power through "a stylized repetition of acts."(1990:140). Campaign developers, perhaps unwittingly, were responsible for more than just the behavioural change of individual women over a limited time period. The transformation of women’s social position may have been unintentional but it was real. After the war, this type of propaganda was replaced with theories on childcare (Bowlby, 1953), which urged women to stay at home. Although many women returned to domesticity after the war, their potential and ability had been publicly recognised and their awareness raised. It was the discontent of women’s lives, identified by Friedan in The Feminine Mystique (1963), which heralded the second wave of feminism.

As the austerity of the post-war period gave way to the more affluent 1960s, awareness campaigns continued to be an important vehicle for informing the public. Iss ues tackled included child-rearing, health education and crime. The first ‘Drink Drive’ campaign began in the UK in 1967; the year breath testing was first introduced. Although there was an initial decrease in drinking related road accidents, there was no sustained campaign in the years following. It was only when the percentage of drink associated accidents rose to 35 in 1975 that the Department of Transport decided to resurrect the campaign, resulting in the 'Don't take your car for a drink’ campaign in the run up to Christmas 1976 (DETR, 1997).

Subsequent campaigns followed the style of this campaign. The Christmas 1977 campaign, 'Think before you drink before you drive', aimed to deter the public from drinking and driving by pointing out the likelihood of being caught, being prosecuted and the consequences of losing a driving licence. The combination of campaign publicity and proactive enforcement was seen as a successful strategy throughout the 1980s.

The advertising campaign of 1990 was specifically targeted at the so-called "lager louts" in the 17 to 34 year old age group (Warden, 1991). It seems almost to be stating the obvious to say that an aspect of drink driving offending is its gender specificity. A study of drivers in Britain (Rolls, Hall, & McDonald, 1991) found that the presence of friends in the car and peer approval for driving dangerously were important factors linked to the higher crash rates of young men. However, the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (OECD, 1994), whilst making recommendations regarding road safety education ignored the gendered nature of drink driving accidents. In Australia, research has found that young male drivers between the ages of 17 and 25 are involved in four times as many serious speed-related casualty crashes as young women and are over-represented in nearly all types of road related crashes (Connell et al., 1997). Such gender differences are however remarked upon (if at all) without any great surprise.

Could it be that gender differences are seen as so ‘natural’ within patriarchal cultures that they become invisible (Walby, 1990; Bennett, 1993)? Just as it was assumed that capable women would return back to their ‘natural’ position of domesticity after their wartime labours, it is assumed that there is something natural about young men drinking and driving. That there are more men driving and more men drinking and more men combining the two is almost seen as an essential constituent of masculinity. Professor Ben Fletcher has suggested, "If there is a risk gene, it is probably men who have it." (The Guardian, 18.9.00). This biological determinism serves to deny men’s responsibility and also serves to dismiss the gendered specificity of such behaviour.

The ideology behind the drink driving campaigns contains a set of beliefs and values that constitute societal norms. The gender-neutral approach of the campaigns up to this point masked the gender-specificity of the offence.

Although the early campaigns also addressed the potential harm to others, it was not until the Christmas campaign of 1992 that the perspective of the victim was given through the dramatised ‘testimony’ of a fatally injured woman talking to the camera. The woman as victim was set in opposition to an ‘assumed’ male perpetrator but this gender dynamic was never overtly stated.

Whilst this type of campaign allowed the public to empathise with the victim and helped to re-enforce the public disapproval of drink-driving, it did little to challenge the particular culture of masculinity which condones such behaviour. In failing to challenge the gendered nature of the behaviour the cult of the individual was prioritised.

During this period, Margaret Thatcher had argued that there was no such thing as society, simply a mass of individuals. Individuals were seen as responsible for the deaths resulting from drink driving and these individuals were depicted as ‘monsters’, deviant, evil and fundamentally unlike us. This allowed ‘social drinkers’ to dismiss their own behaviour as unlikely to result in death. Social drinkers did not see their own behaviour as deviant or evil. On this level then, the power of the campaign had missed its target. Neither individual ‘social drinking’ nor collective ‘masculine’ behaviour was challenged.

So perhaps the most innovative phase of the drink driving campaign was the Christmas 1994 campaign which set out to break the myth that drink related accidents were caused by drunks. It instead argued that people who cause such accidents are just people like us. The campaign used the scenario of a man who had just had a ‘couple of drinks’. The targeting of the campaign, away from the stereotypical ‘drunk driver’ did much to raise the public’s awareness of the issue. The campaign challenged public assumptions about which types of people commit such crimes. In the previous campaigns, there was little identification with the drunk driver; the viewer was able to distance him/herself from the drunk driver. In this campaign, the viewer was forced to question his or her own behaviour and ask ‘could that be me?’ These last two posters are from 1998 & 1999 campaigns. Take a good look at them, the discussion shall return to them presently.

In support of the belief that the campaigns had had the effect of making the ‘social drinker’ aware of his/her behaviour and responsibility, statistics show a general decrease in drink related fatalities.

The table below shows the number of fatal casualties in accidents where one or more driver or rider was over the legal limit:

Drink-driving campaigns provide the ideological justification for police practices which are time consuming and costly. If public-awareness campaigns have served their purpose in informing the public and changing behaviour and attitudes the question remains as to what function these campaigns continue to serve.

While issue-led campaigning has a long history, the issues addressed by Zero Tolerance, domestic violence, rape, sexual assault and child abuse are not amongst the topics traditionally covered by the state and indeed they were largely absent from the policy debates in the 1970s and 1980s (Harwin, Hague, & Malos (eds.), 1999). Until the early 1990s, campaigns around male violence against women focused on crime prevention advice to women. Images used on these materials illustrated women’s status as victim. Such campaign materials continue to be used and the example given here, was produced by the Lancashire constabulary in 1999.

Yet despite such depictions of women as victims, it has been feminists who have been the target of criticism for promoting a climate of victimisation. There have been suggestions that feminists' analyses and language "transforms perfectly stable women into hysterical, sobbing victims" (Roiphe, 1993: 112). Roiphe’s analysis is that by offering women protection, women’s autonomy is compromised and women are constructed as helpless.

Such criticisms are nothing new. Bunch (1975) used the term "victim" in her critique of the consciousness raising exercises of the women’s movement. She argued that some women became obsessed with their own personal experiences, wearing their victimisation as a "chip on the shoulder, a cross to bear, or a badge of honor " (Bunch, 1975: 95). hooks too has criticised the victim model of sisterhood (hooks, 1984). But far from espousing a ‘victim feminism’, a feminism which has no perspective on routes to end the oppression, Zero Tolerance campaigns tackle the stereotypical ‘victim’ images of women head-on (Foley, 1993; Kitzinger & Hunt, 1994).

In November 1992, the first Zero Tolerance campaign challenged the perception of women as victims. Launched by Edinburgh Council’s Women’s Committee, the campaign aimed to highlight the extent and nature of male violence. The campaign was a response to a research study on students aged 12-16 years old at three local schools (Kitzinger & Hunt, 1994). The research showed high levels of tolerance of violence against women and a high percentage of the young men expressed the opinion that they would probably use violence in their own future relationships. In addition to this research, a local Council survey showed that violence against women was a priority issue for women in the city.

A primary starting place for any campaign is in identifying the issue to be addressed and the specific concerns contained within the issue. Concerned Who is the target audience?

Women, men, service providers, policy developers

What issue is the campaign trying to raise?

Male violence against women happens everywhere to all types of women

How does the campaign material convey this message?

Design: black and white imagery, Z logo, dissonance between photograph and words

Research: factual evidence used to support the message

The first Zero Tolerance campaign devised four posters, covering the issues of child sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault, domestic violence. To gain the attention of the public, the posters communicated visually. Slogans and scripts work only on one level of perception and so the transformation of ideas and words into images was crucial. In all phases of the campaign, Zero Tolerance posters have certainly been eye-catching. The use of black and white photography, depicting comfortable, cosy images was counterpoised with text designed to challenge existing assumptions and attitudes. Zero Tolerance used images of everyday people and so the issue was seen as one that related to everyday people. The Zero Tolerance campaign designers recognised that if they were to move feminist ideas into mainstream thought, it was essential that the images used were not of battered, bruised and defeated women but ordinary women, women going about their everyday business. It was important to show that abused women are people like us to avoid the tendency to marginalise abused women that had often resulted from previous campaigns.

The Zero Tolerance campaign rejected the typical victim imagery of the battered woman with the black eye as offensive and dangerous. Research shows that most women who have experienced domestic violence are punched and kicked in parts of the body hidden from public view (Kirkwood, 1993; Godenzi, 1994). Specifying the harm as a black-eye, specifies the response.

This refusal to use victim imagery was unprecedented, and represented an important change in the culture of campaigns. The dissonance between the images and the text stem from the expectations that are held around the use of advertising. Certainly, when a poster uses images of women and children, the anticipation is that it is trying to sell something. A woman sitting on a carpet? The poster is probably trying to sell carpets. Two girls playing together? Probably selling sweets or toys.

Instead, when people read the text, the words told them about women and children being beaten and raped. The posters used a series of scripts. None of these scripts dealt with more than one topic and each was focused and uncompromising. Because the posters dealt with the violence of men against women and children, the normal expectations about posters had been fractured. The Zero Tolerance campaign received much attention and provoked some controversy because of this break with normative expectations. Indeed, Warner (1994) likened the posters to wartime propaganda, "…Goebbels style exercise in hate propaganda…". His objection was that the ‘Feminist Conspiracy’ depicted all men as ‘evil’. This type of criticism is an aspect of the power of Zero Tolerance materials. When posters conform to normative expectations, the message is likely to have minimal impact. By violating the conventional norms, Zero Tolerance campaigns provoked response.

For many women, the Zero Tolerance posters provoked a feeling of empowerment. By using ordinary women in the posters, women could say ‘that could be me’(Foley, 1993). With Zero Tolerance there was a reduced possibility of message neutralisation.

Of course, the scope exists for some people to neutralise the message by denigrating the source of the materials or the research supporting the statements. In 1999, The Merseyside Zero Tolerance Initiative was asked by the Advertising Standards Authority to remove one of the Zero Tolerance posters. There had been objections raised about the validity of the research cited (Big Issue in the North, DATE). But ultimately, even criticism provokes debate and so the message is still being discussed; this is how Zero Tolerance becomes part of the public and political debate. In many ways the controversy stirred up by its critics has been a positive contribution. By providing more platforms from which to speak, such criticisms have helped to strengthen the message.

On a more general level, the campaign has been successful in engaging a diversity of different groups. Zero Tolerance is now run by a charitable Trust, which has developed further campaign packages that continue to be used across the UK and beyond. It is a research and information resource for many groups and has been influential at the level of national government. The Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust recognises that campaigns are not an end in themselves. Campaigns can raise issues but short term raising of public awareness cannot have long term effects. To be effective at this level, campaigns need to be combined with education and training and this is the aim of the latest phase of the campaign. The aim is to influence behaviour and attitudes. This is best achieved through the combination of campaigns with other training and education projects in areas such as schools, health and social welfare and of course, the police.

Multi-agency working practices are increasingly used in many areas of social policy and practice today (Harwin, Hague & Malos (eds.), 1999). The goal is not necessarily consensus, but collaborative exploration of potential improvements in service provision through a more fully rounded appreciation of the roles and skills of all involved agencies and organisations.

This multi-agency approach has developed during the 1990s. Feminist campaigns on male violence against women are no longer the preserve of women’s groups. Many other agencies and organisations now share a sense of ownership; there are a cacophony of other voices around the table.

 

• Organisations which provide funding and other resources

   

   

• Organisations designing and producing the campaign message and materials

   

   

• Organisations providing research/evaluation

   

   

• Organisations involved in responding to the outcomes of the campaign

   

Whilst some of these voices may share the same political perspective, others may be there for very different reasons. There is some debate over whether this new diversity of campaign voices is a positive development (Harwin, Hague & Malos (eds.), 1999). What is clear, is that without feminist activism starting the movement towards such campaigns, things would be very different today.

Zero Tolerance campaigns have utilised a wide range of publicity and advertising means, including newspaper, TV and radio interviews and advertising, exhibitions, community involvement activities, posters, banners, leaflets and other print publicity materials. The Zero Tolerance Campaign has been innovative in its approach and this was necessary to challenge and influence public opinion.

Many advertisers have recognised the eye-catching appeal of the white on black image and copies of the Zero Tolerance design can be frequently found. Going back to those last two posters illustrating the section on drink driving campaigns, it is clear to see how these borrow heavily from the Zero Tolerance posters. One is titled ‘No Excuses’ a phrase taken directly from the second phase Zero Tolerance campaign. The other poster borrows its white on black design from the style pioneered by Zero Tolerance.

Tolerance has pioneered the move away from the victim imagery used in crime prevention literature. As a result, its audience is much broader and responsibility for the crime is relocated away from the woman. In this way, the root causes and main locations of violence against women can be established.

Unfortunately in some areas, Zero Tolerance campaigns have been seen as "… low cost options for some local authorities wishing to be seen to be taking some action against domestic violence." (Harwin, Hague & Malos, 1999:37). Indeed, such practices were forecast. Commenting on The Home Affairs Select Committee on Domestic Violence, Roz Foley argued, "…if we let non-feminist institutions co-opt this [Zero Tolerance] kind of campaign, what we will get will be the usual crap that puts the onus on women to change our behaviour, and not on men to change theirs."(Foley, 1993)

Zero Tolerance campaign materials are designed to challenge not just perpetrators, not just victims but everyone. Just as drink-driving campaigns challenged the myth of the ‘drunk’ and highlighted the dangers of social drinking, so Zero Tolerance challenges the myth of the stereotypical wife beater, child molester and rapist. The campaign’s message of ‘No Man Has The Right’ calls for all men to take responsibility for male violence and that this can only be achieved by challenging male behaviour, male values and the patriarchal structures and attitudes which support them.

As has already been stated, Zero Tolerance has been immensely influential in steering public awareness campaigns away from victim-blaming strategies and the use of victim imagery. The Zero Tolerance campaigns have been used as far away as Australia and have also influenced other ‘second-generation’ campaigns. One such campaign is Operation Kvinnofrid in Sweden.

Operation Kvinnofrid was a response to an initiative launched by government to develop multi-agency working practices in combating male violence against women. In 1992 the County Administrative Board of Stockholm employed a project leader and the work began with a survey to assess the extent to which different authorities co-operated. The survey showed that there was little co-operative working being done but a great deal of interest.

The first poster campaign was launched in October 1997, partly inspired by Zero Tolerance (Rapport 1999: p6). It lasted two weeks and reached the public, schools and agencies through leaflets, posters, seminars and a telephone information line.

However, a major site of difference between Operation Kvinnofrid and the Zero Tolerance campaign was in the use of victim imagery. Operation Kvinnofrid depicts women as sad, with their heads bowed.

In its second campaign, Operation Kvinnofrid used images of men in their posters, with the slogan ‘real men do not hit women’. The men were depicted in macho poses. Not only did these posters give the message that to be a ‘real man’ involved the acceptance of dominant hegemonic masculinities but they also held the implicit message that if ‘real men’ can be identified, then ‘bad men’ can also be easily identified.

By its use of such imagery, Operation Kvinnofrid risks re-enforcing stereotypes of victimised women. Such stereotypes act to limit the response of service providers such as housing, health and police; if she does not look victimised then she must be all right. While it is correct to say that there has been development in practitioners willingness to recognise and act on external signs of physical abuse, there are many more women and children whose abuse is not evident to the naked eye.

Such stereotypes also exclude great numbers of women and children who, on looking at the poster, do not see themselves. Likewise, men can look at the posters and excuse their own behaviour towards women and children so long as ‘their’ women and children do not look like those depicted. If individuals cannot recognise themselves then the message is lost. Fundamentally, the message being conveyed is that these are the women and children we should be concerned about and this is the type of male behaviour that is abusive. These posters do not appeal because they do not depict people like us.

Other campaigns

Europe Against Domestic Violence – a Daphne funded multi-agency collaboration between Milan (Italy) and Liverpool (UK) has produced a website and paper literature on domestic violence. It uses a mixture of cartoons and photographs to illustrate the text. Some images are victim orientated.

The European campaign to raise awareness of violence against women - is another European funded campaign which has produced a series of posters. One of the messages of the campaign is "zero tolerance of violence against women". But some advice given places responsibility onto women:

The United Nations Inter-Agency Human Rights Campaign aims to combat violence against women and girls specifically in three areas; Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia and the Pacific. This movement aims to influence governments and intergovernmental agencies. Its campaign image shows woman and girls in a positive manner.

http://www.unifem.undp.org/campaign/violence

The White Ribbon Campaign (WRC) is a campaign organised by men to campaign against violence against women. Originating in Canada, the campaign has had influence in many other countries, especially the Scandinavian countries of Northern Europe. Criticism has been expressed that wearing the white ribbon emblem cannot guarantee that the wearer is non-violent.

http://www.undp.org/rblac/gender/mens.htm

This article has sought to extend and complicate the story of public-awareness campaigns by pushing the analysis across time and subject matter. Just as patriotic imperatives were rarely questioned during wartime, campaigns on issues such as drink-driving are accepted as part of the social environment. This article has tried to highlight that questions surrounding the conception and perpetuation of campaigns need to be raised.

Campaigns are conceived for particular reasons and are generally seen to be about challenging behaviour which is seen as threatening to the established social order. This article has argued that campaigns usually have legitimising role, justifying the actions of the state in controlling its citizens. World War II propaganda aimed to secure consensus by targeting women in a number of ways. Drink-driving campaigns act to legitimise the law enforcement strategies of the police. But in any campaign, the message might be lost if individuals do not feel part of the target audience. Campaigns have the power to raise issues but individuals are often protected from being influenced by the strength of their own beliefs and by prevailing social norms and if campaigns do not challenge an individual’s private beliefs and values, behavioural change is unlikely to occur.

Most campaign materials share similar characteristics and objectives:

 

1. Vested interests intersect with political imperatives to conceive the need for a campaign.

    

    

2. The design attracts the public’s attention and provokes a response within the target audience.

    

    

3. The message determines the transmission of information.

    

    

4. Public or political opinion is influenced or behaviour is modified.

    

With wartime propaganda, the vested interests of industry intersected with the political need to ‘manage’ a large population of women. Women were depicted as capable yet feminine, dressed in overalls but not without their make-up. Although women were depicted as physically capable of performing ‘male’ jobs during the war, the state was not so keen to secure equal pay for women (Summerfield, 1995). This, together with research (Bowlby, 1953) that highlighted the maternal qualities of women encouraged the movement of women back into the home when the men returned.

With the drink driving campaigns, although presented in a gender neutral fashion, the target audience was never an homogeneous whole. Social drinkers who did not see their behaviour as ‘criminal’ were just as unreceptive to the message as the habitual drinker. While research indicates that the problem of drink-driving is concentrated primarily within the young, male population, campaigns targeted simply at these few would not have lent legitimacy to the enforcement of authoritarian police practices which apply to the many.

The Zero Tolerance campaign differs in that it has not yet received the public endorsement of government. The Zero Tolerance campaign introduced a slogan into the public arena and to an extent, the phrase ‘Zero Tolerance’ has been utilised by politicians and senior police officers who have applied it to a style of policing. But it is important to remember that a slogan cannot solve complex issues and social problems. The strength of the Zero Tolerance campaign is in its conception of the problem and its analysis of the issues. This analysis of male violence against women has helped to challenge the myths and has disputed the simplifications and misleading assumptions held by many. The analysis has asked key questions of the quality and efficiency of responses by statutory agencies. In its use of researched data and statistics the campaign has also made public the injustice experienced by women. Essentially, the campaigns’ three principles of Prevention, Provision and Protection have guided the development of the campaign and has kept the campaign focused on the realities of women’s needs. The integrity of the Zero Tolerance campaign stems from its emergence from the women’s movement (Cosgrove, in Corrin (ed.), 1996:202). It is within this context that the campaign exists and has found success.

It may be cynical to suggest that until the state is either ready to fully accept a feminist analysis of male abuse of power or finds the Zero Tolerance Campaign a useful strategy to control some aspect of social life, there is unlikely to be a national campaign on male violence against women. Indeed, the Labour government commissioned such a campaign from the Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust in 1997 but have yet failed to use it.

Until there is societal acceptance of the fact that attacks on women and children are not necessarily perpetrated by strangers and acknowledges the dangers from known men, campaigns such as Zero Tolerance will be necessary. Rosie the Riveter may be seen as archaic to our present day acceptance of women’s participation in the public world of paid employment but Rosie’s grand-daughter is barely safer in the home now than Rosie was likely to be then. While drink-driving campaigns have reduced deaths on the road, until campaigns against male violence are taken up on a national basis there will continue to be deaths in the home.

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