Comments on: London minicabs and public service ads

By: pencarian

pencarian — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:21:02 +0000

Having been raped myself, I found these advertisements quite offensive. The idea of taking the words of a woman in terrible distress and suffering and then twisting them around to address the general public.. it’s incredibly tasteless.

There was no respect for the woman’s experience or how she was feeling - just a calculated exploitation of her words to get maximum shock value. Every time I pass one it makes me furious and sick.

By: Ghazal

Ghazal — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:09:50 +0000

While I think we need to raise aware of these issues, the advertisement makes me feel uncomfortable, and is quite intrusive when one is going about their daily life on the tube.

>Perhaps the adverts are “hard-hitting” and may be “triggering” to victims of rape or abuse (i.e. it gives them a sharp reminder of their trauma), but such things as graphic imagery of the aftermaths of car accidents and other potentially upsetting material are the norm in British public safety adverts

While every trauma is awful, I think sexual trauma is different and should not be compared here.

By: Indigo Jo

Indigo Jo — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:59:10 +0000

Thanks, kingstonpeople. I mentioned the “south of the river” element in my comments on the original blog entry but forgot to mention it here.

By: kingstonpeople

kingstonpeople — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:56:57 +0000

The problem with scary adverts like this is often the people they are trying to target ignore them due to the amount of advertising images around that are suppose to be hard hitting and trying to get people to change their behaviour.

Another reason they don’t work is practicality. Black cab drivers have a habit of refusing to take people home who live South of the River and as you have to get a licensed mini-cab from their offices or phone them in advance, if you are in a hurry you are not going to do this.

So while the number of licensed mini-cabs has helped the situation until black cab drivers stop refusing to take people South of the River (regardless of the price they charge) then people are just going to ignore the adverts regardless of age and gender.