Sexist and dangerous Samaritans ad

@MinnieCauldwell
Oh jeepers, I had not opened that thread because, well... But I managed to find the post about the Samaritans while shielding my eyes from the rest of the screen.

To give a veiled description, a young female volunteer was expected to be supportive to a man who regularly demonstrated unusual behaviour during his visits.

That is shocking and I really, really hope it wouldn't happen today. But I'm not optimistic.

It's replying to your post, where you took issue with mine.

"Unfortunately in some situations, they’re just not able to which is when intervention can be needed."

And if no one intervenes its someone else's fault, which is the underlying message and utter bollocks.

I can't remember the last time I saw a campaign that targeted the person having a difficult time. They are all quite literally "someone else could have prevented this" now.

And in the samaritans case, that someone is a woman. Colour me surprised.

It's quite clear that she can see him.

What’s that got to do with this ad?

@potato57 Manchester? That happened to a friend of DD's

Some aren’t.

I think adults are quite capable of understanding two opposing internal dialogues without the person having to look visually different.

@willWillSmithsmith

**
Her face looked perfectly fine in the no make version though.”

I thought so too. Had to go back and look at the ad again. Been called disingenuous : I,m really not. Hadn’t noticed the apparently obvious difference on first watch. Find (presumably) other women making “sexy” “frumpy” judgements a bit odd, tbh. I just see other women, don’t really take much notice of their appearance. Unless they’re in a ball gown and tiara in Lidl, obviously.

Everyone looks fine without make-up!

Nevertheless make-up is a multi-billion pound industry, because people (mostly women) still buy it. Why? Because it makes an appreciable difference to how women look, and the difference is viewed as socially positive!

And if she hadn’t seen him and really thought the man was about to do something terrible?

It would be more responsible to show the woman approaching the staff member and telling him about her concerns.

Her face looked perfectly fine in the no make version though.

Disturbia81
Yes the advert is a great idea, we should all be more thoughtful.
Just don't use a lone woman approaching a man.

She’s not alone? There’s another person who looks like a member of staff approaching, too: who in a real life situation would probably take over.

This ad is employing a form of Halo Effect to communicate which course of action is the good, morally correct one.

The Halo Effect is normally seen when people ascribe positive personal qualities to attractive people, because we subconsciously assume that beautiful things/people are good. In this ad, the change in her clothing and make-up signals that what she is doing/advocating is morally correct.

Research has found that attractiveness has a positive “halo effect”, where people tend to attribute socially desirable personality traits to physically attractive individuals. Several studies have documented this “attractiveness halo effect”, with most research using western samples. This study sought to examine the “attractiveness halo effect” across 45 countries in 11 world regions. Data was collected through the Psychological Science Accelerator and participants were asked to rate 120 faces on one of several traits. Results showed that attractiveness correlated positively with most of the socially desirable personality traits. More specifically, across all 11 world regions, male and female faces rated as more attractive were rated as more confident, emotionally stable, intelligent, responsible, sociable, and trustworthy. These findings, thus, provide evidence that the “attractiveness halo effect” can be found cross-culturally.

Springer

Megifer

But they should run alongside campaigns that focus on the individual recognising shit ain't right with themselves and where they can get professional help.”

Absolutely agree, the two aren’t mutually exclusive and people should try to take responsibility. Unfortunately in some situations, they’re just not able to which is when intervention can be needed.

I just don’t see what others are seeing. To me, it’s just a woman having a dramatically portrayed internal dialogue about whether she should intervene.

Actually some of the suggestions people are making here - get a member of staff if you are worried about someone but don't feel safe approaching them/phone police in an emergency/use a different topic of conversation than getting coffee are probably much better than the actual Samaritan's advert - because they give people a way to help that is actually actionable in real life.

Perhaps the woman should just forget about catching the train, and give up her job and spend all her time and money on opening mental health support groups for men. Or just shag him to pop a smile on his face.

Yes the advert is a great idea, we should all be more thoughtful.
Just don't use a lone woman approaching a man.

@MrsSkylerWhite the problem isn't in showing ways to help, per se. The problem is in actively encouraging women to ignore every fibre of their being which is screaming out "this isn't safe".

There are lots of safer ways to intervene. It would have been safer in this instance to alert station staff (much safer, in fact, because they could have alerted signallers/drivers that there was a risk). If someone falls into open water, the advice is to never put yourself at risk trying to save them. This ad seems to be saying exactly the opposite.

I have no problem with campaigns that suggest checking in on FRIENDS or FAMILY could help. But they should run alongside campaigns that focus on the individual recognising shit ain't right with themselves and where they can get professional help. There's an underlying tone of "if only someone else had helped them they might not have jumped" or whatever, when, if that situation happens, friends and family are told it wasn't their fault (I should know). So which is it?

This Samaritans campaign is as dangerous as it is stupid as it is guilt trippy.

If only real life could be autocorrected.

I do like Skylark, though. May name change . Perhaps I am easily manipulated after all 😁

Why are they wearing different clothes?