The Scottish Government

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ISBN 0 7559 1161 X (Web only publication)

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Campaign overview

• The Scottish Executive first launched a domestic abuse campaign in December 1998.
• This third phase of the campaign used TV and press advertising. There was one TV execution, 'Doll's House', and four press executions, all of which used the dolls from the TV advertisement.
• This wave of research (Wave 7) followed the second burst of this third television advertising campaign in December 2003/ January 2004.
• The previous wave of research (Wave 6) was conducted in January 2003.

Highlights

• The high awareness of the campaign seen in previous waves has been maintained in Wave 7.
• Recall of the 'Doll's House' execution dropped slightly between Wave 6 (51%) and Wave 7 (47%), but this is still a reasonably high level of unprompted recall for an advert. Prompted recall at this wave was consistent with that seen at Wave 6 (70%).
• Understanding of the advert was also good, with the majority of respondents understanding the central message of the effect of domestic abuse on children.
• The research notes that ' those who were aware of having seen the ad campaign held more forthright attitudes on the subject of domestic abuse compared to those who had not seen any advertising. This indicates that the ad campaign is contributing to those views'.
• Wave 7 shows a slight drop in the number of people who thought that domestic abuse is a common occurrence in Scotland (74%, compared with 78% in Wave 6). This may be because the 'Doll's House' execution does not emphasise the '1 in 5' statistic that the previous TV advert promoted.
• Wave 7 also showed that domestic abuse is increasingly perceived as something that affects all classes. This shift was especially evident amongst females (from 66% to 73%). This is in line with the campaign's aims to educate that domestic abuse can happen to anyone, regardless of class or age.
• The research shows a significant increase (from 83% in Wave 6, to 88% in this wave) in the number of people who agree with the statement that people who escape from domestic abuse can go on to make a new life for themselves afterwards.

Implications

• There was a significant increase in the number of women who responded that they had personally been subject to domestic abuse (from 19% in Wave 6, to 24% in Wave 7). This is not necessarily indicative of an increase in the number of people being abused. The campaign has worked towards educating people in Scotland to understand that domestic abuse is not necessarily physical in nature, but can be emotional. An increase in the number of people who recognise that they are in an abusive relationship might indicate that the campaign has achieved this aim.
• The research also highlights a shift towards associating domestic abuse particularly with middle aged people. This could simply be down to the 'Doll's House' execution showing a middle aged mother, whereas the previous campaign had used actresses of a range of ages. This suggests subsequent campaigns ought to show women of a range of ages to break down the misconception that domestic abuse is something that is most likely to happen to people in their middle age.