Marketing Interactive’s piece on YSL’s latest campaign in support of its ‘Abuse Is Not Love’ programme shared a variety of views on the efficacy of the approach. You can read the article here, and a longer version of Senior Consultant, Graham Hitchmough’s response below…
At first look, I was reminded of the controversy over the recent It Ends With Us film adaptation, with its accusations of romanticizing abusive relationships and alleged abuses behind the camera. However, while YSL’s ‘Don’t Call It Love’ spot leans into a similar glossy Hollywood aesthetic, I think it does so in an artful and effective way, before subverting it. Whether purposefully reflecting the tropes of modern movie romance, or simply reeling us in with the familiar luxury brand production values, I think it does its job well of gradually revealing the true story of the piece and dramatising the tell-tale signs of an abusive relationship.
Dramatising is the key word – rather than romanticizing – and I think the film treads that line very effectively. Sometimes it is more powerful to be misdirected into taking on board information that we were not expecting – and this is a case in point. Critically, it seems the YSL team behind this carried out significant due diligence from experts connected to their Abuse is Not Love programme to ensure that the facts of how IPV can begin were accurately represented and not overwhelmed by the glossiness of the visuals.
That’s really the key with high profile cause-related marketing efforts such as this – they can be dramatic, they can even be performative to a degree, but they have to align aesthetics with expertise. Partnering with credible experts and organisations (as YSL has done) is a big part of that, as is connecting the cause to something rooted deep within the brand’s DNA – in this case YSL’s long-standing focus on empowering women.
In addition – as is the case with YSL’s the Abuse is Not Love program – a splashy, attention-grabbing production such as this should always be part of a more multi-layered, measurable long-term commitment to the cause in question.
In the long term, the gaze of the lens should always be trained longest on the ‘survivor’ and not the ‘saviour’. It should never be the brand’s priority to put itself in the spotlight, but to shine that light as long and powerfully as possible on those that need to be heard, supported, or educated.