Publicity campaigns are good avenues for promoting awareness for pressing issues in the society, marketing products and also introducing new ideas to the society. The effectiveness of these public campaigns is, however, dependent on several factors and most people involved been forced to make tough decisions on the most appropriate ways to present their issues. The aim of publicity is to reach as many people as possible within the target audience and achieve the intended purpose.
The length of the publicity campaign, however, is dependent on the impact and sensitivity of the matter despite discouraging moments. The outcome of efforts towards a well-thought publicity does eventually lead to a change of culture within the target area (Loeb, 2010). In this paper, the essence of a publicity campaign for matters concerning women and girls safety within the societies is evaluated and further discussed. With this issue in mind, the appropriateness of the methods used to reach the target groups is determined.
Discussion
Women and girls experience have been increasingly vulnerable to various forms of sexual violence and harassment within the society. The safety of the women in the public spaces is far much wanting with acts such as illegal touching, nasty sexual remarks, rape and female discrimination occurring at high rates in these places (UN Women, 2017). These incidences are common in schools, public offices and workspaces, transportation vessels and recreational parks. As a result, the women of the girls are much victimized, and their freedom of expression and movement limited within the public domain. Through limited movement and expression, these individuals miss on critical resources and public utilities compared to their male counterparts.According to a survey by Plan International in Australia, about 30 percent of women and girls believe that the public spaces are not safe for them especially during the dark hours. The organization has confirmed the same statistics in other countries in Africa, Middle East, and the Americas.The aim of this public campaign is to establish awareness at both public and personal levels on the significance of enhancing the safety of women and girls and the implications of this action to the social makeup of the society. The effects of the aspect of safe public spaces for women and girls on each person is also outlined in this public campaign. This campaign employs several reaches out methods to capture the target audience.
These methods include; planned events across various cities, poster campaigns, the creation of a website for this issue, and through publications in newspapers.This campaign majorly targets the male population who are the fathers, the husbands and the brothers to the women and girls within the society. Sexual violence and insecurity in the public space are initiated and carried by men against the women and girls. Creating awareness on the importance of keeping off such acts to the women and the social set up of the society is important. More important is the need to rally for the support and protection of women and girls against sexual violence in the public spaces. Other groups on target are lobby groups such as women rights organization, human rights groups and various institutions in which these women and girls are a part.
The cooperation of these organizations and institutions is essential in enacting rules against sexual violence within their premises is important to the success of the campaign for women and girls safety in the public domain. Finally, the government especially the legislature is targeted to ensure firm laws that promote the safety of women and girls in the public domain are established and passed.The actual message of the campaign is to make of public facilities safe for women and girls at all times. The creative and comprehensive long-running campaign will ensure the normalization of the talk of the safety of women and girls in the public domain (UN Women, 2017). The message will also encompass the importance of safe public spaces to the productivity of the community and the nation as a whole. The social significance of this safety will also be emphasized in the message of the publicity campaign.
In this publicity campaign, the same message will be sent over to over to all of the target groups with no particular message targeted to a specific group.Launching a campaign has always been the important part of the publicity campaign due to reasons such as the quality of the first impact on the target groups (Brabender, 2017). In the launch of the campaign, the first batch of information would be released to the media with an extensive follow-up to ensure that it reaches the target groups as intended. Following will be a series of robust public events within the cities. This method of approach would be effective as the message, and the mandate of the campaign will be consistent in the public domain as long as it can.
Conclusion
The approach adopted for this publicity campaign would, therefore, be well achieving as it targets all the major groups of interest. The methods used in publicity are also extensive and comprehensively cover the target groups. As Loeb (2010) notes; ‘‘issues once at the margins of our vision become the focus of our lives. Distractions that once consumed our time become peripheral. Upon accepting the challenge of trying to shape a different future, we feel a sense of larger purpose.We become linked with others who share our vision (p. 289).’’ Consistency of the methods that directly engage the public such as the public rallies and events are useful in obtaining timely feedback that may be helpful in adjusting deficient areas during the publicity campaign.
References
Loeb, P. (2010).Soul of a citizen (1st ed., pp. 195-256). New York: St.
Martin's Griffin.Brabender, T. (2017). Publicity Campaigns.
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UN Women.
