Ministry of Social & Family Dev TV ad on domestic violence too graphic
First, I would like to support the Ministry of Social and Family Development for raising awareness of domestic violence and abuse, and for promoting its hotline, which gives residents a way to report cases of domestic violence.

However, I do find the televised advertisement deeply problematic.

The video features, among others, scenes of a man yelling at his elderly parent for soiling the wheelchair (and then thrusting the soiled rag in the parent's face), and scenes of heavy beating, verbal abuse, and other relatively graphic domestic violence scenes.

These scenes came in rapid succession, with no context given up till the scenes of people calling the hotline.

I understand that perhaps such a graphic narrative is effective in driving home the urgency of the situation.

However, it can be very detrimental in that it is potentially triggering, especially for people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety.

Such graphic scenes can evoke painful flashbacks and can in general be very disturbing.

Perhaps a "trigger warning" informing viewers that some scenes may be disturbing could be placed before the start of the video, or better yet, the more graphic scenes could be replaced with more subtle or off-camera depictions of domestic violence.

Raising awareness of domestic violence and of what we can do if we see it happening is very important - but let us also think of those suffering from PTSD.

Iain Tan Jin-Rong

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/forum/forum-tv-ad-on-domestic-violence-too-graphic

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