Interval House shows how smartphones can enable domestic abuse in new campaign by Union
Interval House, a Canadian shelter house for women, has launched a new campaign aimed at showing how the liberating advancements of technology can actually be exploited by abusers.
Developed by Union, a Toronto-based agency, the campaign highlights that while smartphone are changing, the problem of abuse isn’t and for some victims of abuse they are just another control mechanism.
“When we started this project, we still had a relatively naive conception of the forms that abuse could take – that it was mostly physical or verbal,” said Lance Martin, executive creative director at Union. “But as we learned more, we realized how big a role control and surveillance play in abusive relationships. And how smartphones enable that.”
The online video mimics Apple’s adverts to show the control a smartphone can give an abuser, as well as how that control can make it harder for women to seek help from facilities like Interval House.