Here is a series of anti-bullying ads that we produced and posted online late last week. Our goal was to raise awareness without resorting to being all-serious like most current anti-bullying ads.
Now that our ads have had a little success, I’ve run into a small amount of controversy. I’d like to give you an opportunity to watch them and make up your own mind before you hear what I have to say about it.
I’ll post my thoughts below the following four videos:
Sexy Pics:
Enjoy that Coffee:
Change Your Password:
No Room for Losers:
Even though the negative feedback has been minimal, it does bring up a good point that I’d like to address.
Did we take the subject matter too lightly? Had we taken the consequences of bullying lightly, I would say “yes”. But most people who watched them understand that our videos weren’t about that.
Almost any other anti-bullying video you’ll find online is about the consequences of bullying. Their message is delivered with a heavy hand which can effective. Except for when every anti-bullying ad is designed that way. These ads risk becoming ineffective in their approach because that very approach gets saturated.
An awareness PSA is successful if it is watched and remembered. But that will cease to happen if each one is the same as the next. That’s why we did something different.
Our videos make a clear statement: bullying is absurd. Therefore we focus on the actual act of bullying and depict it in a manner that is consistent with that absurdity. Of course, I wouldn’t recommend that every video take this approach in the future. That concept will then become saturated as well.
I do recommend that content creators continuously innovate how they communicate. By keeping the messaging fresh, the better chance they have at effectively engaging with their audience.
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