A chilling new campaign for domestic violence charity Refuge stars Billie Piper as she gives anonymous voice to untold stories of domestic abuse, from coercive control to abusing tech.
Entitled “Make the world a refuge”, the two-minute long film is directed by Bafta-winning director Georgi Banks-Davies and created with creative agency AMV BBDO.
Piper’s performance demonstrates how abuse can go far beyond the typically understood hallmarks of physical abuse to include modern forms of abuse which we should know about but don’t always, from exploitative AI-generative imagery to financial abuse.
In addition to the two-minute spot, the film will also appear in 60-second, 30-second, 15-second and 6-second forms across social media.
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest marketing campaigns sent straight to your inbox each morning
AMV BBDO creatives Lauren Peters and Augustine Cerf said: “We wanted to tell the kind of abuse stories that don’t usually get told. Including the abuse that can often feel too small, on its own, to report to the police. Often, when we spoke to survivors, we heard them say heartbreaking things like “it’s not physical, but…” But it’s abuse. And abuse in all of its forms endangers the lives of women all over this country.”
“It deserves to be told, and to be understood. Through Billie, and the emotional, truthful force of her performance, we could protect the anonymity of the survivors, whilst giving a voice to their stories.”
It continues on from AMV BBDO’s previous 2020 collaboration with Refuge entitled The Naked Threat, which pushed the government to introduce legislation to making the sharing of explicit images an illegal offence.
At least one in four women in England and Wales will experience some form of domestic abuse in their lifetime.
Refuge interim CEO Abigail Ampofo said: “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Billie for this awareness raising film. Coercive control is a highly prevalent form of domestic abuse, but is often not talked about, meaning that perpetrators are not held accountable while survivors are unable to access the support that they deserve. This type of abuse is insidious, and a perpetrator’s actions may appear subtle at first, which means some of the warning signs can be hard to spot.”
“Billie’s invaluable work with Refuge will help us to show survivors of coercive control that they are not alone, and we hope it will allow more women to be able to spot the signs. For all the ways in which coercive control can show up, Refuge will show up for survivors,” she continued.
