#TheDress used in powerful domestic abuse campaign

The charity shared a photo of a young blonde woman lying on her side covered in black and blue bruises wearing a white and gold version of the dress.  The advert asks: “Why is it so hard to see black and blue” and the caption underneath reads: “The only illusion is if you think it was her choice. One in six women are victims of abuse. Stop abuse against women.”

The tweet of this image was retweeted 16,952 times and favorited more than 8,000 times to date which is a fantastic way of spreading a powerful image!

Sparking further online conversation of the infamous dress, the overall response to the advert was positive.  Many people applauded the fact the charity used the dress to raise awareness to stop abuse against women and how they re-used a viral image on social media to address a larger and more serious issue.

The Salvation Army’s campaign tied in neatly with International Women’s Day, which was celebrated on the 8th March 2015.

The Dress went viral after a 21-year-old posted a photograph of the garment on Tumblr after seeing her friends disagree over its colours. According to a Buzzfeed Poll, taken by 3.4 million voters, 32 per cent of people saw the dress as its real colour blue and black whilst 68 per cent saw white and gold. A number of celebrities got involved with the debate, such as Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift having a say on what colours they saw.

Salvation Army South Africa has used social media and trending content to their advantage by producing a campaign that encourages people to discuss domestic abuse. We think this is a great example of reacting to trending content and using it to your advantage. Not only did Salvation Army in South Africa spread awareness of their domestic abuse campaign but they also jumped on the International Women’s Day bandwagon which generated a real social buzz.

We look forward to seeing what 2015 has in store and the effects social media campaigns will have.