A FaceTime chat turns dark in this PSA about domestic violence during lockdown

Reports of domestic and child abuse have spiked in countries under lockdown due to COVID-19. Victims have no time away from their abusers, and nowhere to go to escape. They can’t call for help in secret. Abusers have nowhere to focus their attentions but on their victims, and all of this may be compounded by loss of work and financial and health stressors.

To let victims trapped at home know they aren’t alone, TBWA\Dublin created a PSA for Ireland’s Department of Justice and Equality. A FaceTime chat turns dark as a woman’s abuser barges in, accusing her of talking with someone he doesn’t approve of, before tearing the phone away as the woman sobs.

The spot closes with three hotline numbers and the campaign website, www.stillhere.ie, which offers resources for anyone struggling at home, as well as a “Return to Safety” button that closes the window and switches to the Google homepage, for people who may need to quickly hide their activity from an abuser in the home.

To shoot the spot while Ireland is in lockdown, TBWA\Dublin hired two actors who live together to play the troubled couple, and Rupert Morris of MAKE directed over Zoom.

Previously, another ad for U.K. charity Women's Aid from Engine addressed the domestic violence issue by inserting it into  a format that's now become familiar in brands' pandemic advertising.