Sexist and dangerous Samaritans ad

[Meadowbird]

https://twitter.com/samaritans/status/1760599123923722266

A really bizarre ad - encouraging lone women to approach disturbed men on deserted train station platforms and ask them out for a coffee. What could possibly go wrong? They also will become sexier if they do apparently.

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

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.

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

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

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

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!

@willWillSmithsmith

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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.

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

Some aren’t.

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

What’s that got to do with this ad?

It's quite clear that she can see him.

"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 replying to your post, where you took issue with mine.

@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.

Then they might not be capable of understanding anything in this ad. They could easily have just had this woman look the same on both sides of the dialogue.

I still don’t understand why make up being a billion dollar industry has to do with the woman having a made up and a make up free version of herself in the ad.

OldCrone · Today 14:37

MrsSkylerWhite · Today 14:31

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

It's quite clear that she can see him”

You’re absolutely right in this ad, I put that badly. I was thinking more of a real life situation, if a woman with a feeling that someone was in trouble and wondering whether to intervene hadn’t seen someone else. What would they do?

willWillSmithsmith · Today 14:39

MrsSkylerWhite · Today 14:36

Some aren’t.
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Then they might not be capable of understanding anything in this ad. They could easily have just had this woman look the same on both sides of the dialogue”

OK, fair enough.
I just don’t have the same issue with you at the presentation.

Everyone looks fine without make-up.

So why is anyone buying it?

Not read the whole thread, but I notice "blurry man" is wearing orange hi-viz, so probably station staff.

That’s got nothing to do with this ad. I’ve been asking why is there a made up and a make up free version of this woman when it’s not necessary in order to understand that the woman is having a conflicting dialogue. Two of the same person is quite sufficient for any half intelligent person to work it out.

Yes, I think we're probably saying the same thing really.

To the Samaritans, their entire charitable purpose is around suicide prevention - so if an advert does a good job of promoting that message, then it is successful from their point of view.

This is their charitable purpose from the Charity Commission website:

(A) TO ENABLE PERSONS WHO ARE EXPERIENCING FEELINGS OF DISTRESS OR DESPAIR, INCLUDING THOSE WHO MAY BE AT RISK OF SUICIDE, TO RECEIVE CONFIDENTIAL EMOTIONAL SUPPORT AT ANY TIME OF THE DAY OR NIGHT FROM APPROPRIATELY TRAINED SAMARITANS IN ORDER TO IMPROVE THEIR EMOTIONAL HEALTH AND TO REDUCE THE INCIDENCE OF SUICIDE; AND (B) TO PROMOTE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING IN SOCIETY OF SUICIDE, SUICIDAL BEHAVIOUR AND THE VALUE OF EXPRESSING FEELINGS WHICH MAY OTHERWISE LEAD TO SUICIDE OR IMPAIRED EMOTIONAL HEALTH.

So it meets those purposes, even though I agree it could be improved in other ways.

Whereas if HM Government were creating an advert then one would hope that they would be much more conscious of how it would impact on different groups, including women, from the outset although I wouldn't count on it these days. I believe there is still the need to do an equalities impact assessment for new initiatives?

Is it worth a complaint to the ASA?

For the record it wasn’t me who said everyone looks fine without make up. I said she looks fine.