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A string of fake celebrity break-ups last week was meant to highlight a campaign against domestic violence, but did it send a powerful message or was it a trivial distraction? News24 finds out.
Celebrity ambassadors including Roxy Burger, Sonia Booth and Kirsty Bisset set social media alight by changing their relationship status on social media sites to ‘single’ to draw attention to a People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) campaign.
For a whole day, they pretended their relationships were over with their other halves, not
explaining why until the following day.
‘Surreal experience’
After revealing her stunt split on Instagram, model and businesswoman Sonia Booth said a lot of people on social media "made insensitive comments and funny remarks, some were genuinely concerned and sent me messages of sympathy and others just pretended they didn’t see my post".
For Bisset, calling off her engagement was a "surreal experience". She wrote in her blog: "The response to my status emptied my battery life at full-speed. Comments, WhatsApp messages, legal advice, phone calls and even a drinks invite came flooding in and I couldn’t say a word."
TV sports anchor Wardah Hartley meanwhile said on Twitter that though she was proud to be a part of the campaign, "admittedly, I got a few people very worried when I changes (sic) my status."
Leaving abusive men
So what was the point of the upset? It was to prove that while some can go from 'in a
relationship' to 'single' in just one click, for abused women ending a relationship takes a lot longer.
In fact, the executive director of POWA, Nhlanhla Mokwena, said it takes a woman 10 to 15 years to leave an abusive relationship.
It's a figure made all the more stark by the fact that one in four women in South Africa are in abusive relationships, according to the Medical Research Council.
Yet just 100 women a month report violence to POWA.
Mokwena said that for most women POWA is "the last straw" - the majority have been in a relationship for more than 10 years and have sought help from their family, priest and friends before approaching the organisation.
For Sanja Bornman from the Women's Legal Centre (WLC) the 'one click' campaign "might give courage to women in abusive relationships, and start some discussion".
She said: "The one click idea is another small way of sending the message that a woman does not need a partner in order to be worth something, and that being "single" is not something for women to ashamed of - which sadly is a message that still bears repeating in our society."
Meaningful discussion?
Whipping up a frenzy over their relationship status certainly seemed to unsettle the celebrities and their fans alike. But once the buzz had died down, did the campaign’s message get through?
POWA told News24 that it won’t know if the stunt prompted a spike in donations until the end of the three month campaign.
Some comments on social media questioned the purpose of the stunt, with criticism that it "trivialised a serious issue" and was an "ill-conceived" campaign. Others merely brushed the whole thing off as a bug on Facebook.
Lisa Vetten, gender researcher at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, questioned how much of a "meaningful discussion" the campaign started.
She said that raising awareness needs to be linked to some sort of action or appeal for help.
She added: "I question how much deep conversation actually happens on social media."
Armchair activism
Though Vetten said she didn't agree that it was a "trivial stunt", she said: "To raise awareness you have to keep the conversation going - it can’t run by itself."
Corli de Kock, who was behind the Ogilvy-run campaign, admitted that it does draw on the "armchair activism" of the online world.
But she said it is also a "pretty easy way to reach people" - in particular the hundreds of thousands of people that follow POWA’s celebrity ambassadors on social media.
She also pointed out that Facebook research shows that there is a 225% increase in interaction on the day of a breakup post, "which would up our chances of reaching more people".
Though POWA agrees the campaign may be controversial, a spokeswoman said: "But if people are criticising it, it means they've seen it and will talk about it."
For Bornman, one social media campaign will never be able to address the issue, "and we should not expect it to".
She said the campaign is "no more trivial than wearing coloured ribbons to raise awareness".
That said, Bornman argues that there is "a lot of fatigue" around women's issues.
"It is hard to get people on board. This is probably why POWA wanted to try something a bit off-beat, and potentially controversial," she added.
For Health and Development Africa (HDA), violence against women is the "most pervasive human rights violation experienced today".
The HDA claims that among women aged between 15 and 44, acts of violence cause more death and disability than war, cancer, malaria and traffic accidents combined.
Worth a conversation, at the very least.
To find out more about POWA’s ‘more than a click’ campaign, visit their website.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Celebrity ambassadors including Roxy Burger, Sonia Booth and Kirsty Bisset set social media alight by changing their relationship status on social media sites to ‘single’ to draw attention to a People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) campaign.
For a whole day, they pretended their relationships were over with their other halves, not
explaining why until the following day.
‘Surreal experience’
After revealing her stunt split on Instagram, model and businesswoman Sonia Booth said a lot of people on social media "made insensitive comments and funny remarks, some were genuinely concerned and sent me messages of sympathy and others just pretended they didn’t see my post".
For Bisset, calling off her engagement was a "surreal experience". She wrote in her blog: "The response to my status emptied my battery life at full-speed. Comments, WhatsApp messages, legal advice, phone calls and even a drinks invite came flooding in and I couldn’t say a word."
TV sports anchor Wardah Hartley meanwhile said on Twitter that though she was proud to be a part of the campaign, "admittedly, I got a few people very worried when I changes (sic) my status."
Leaving abusive men
So what was the point of the upset? It was to prove that while some can go from 'in a
relationship' to 'single' in just one click, for abused women ending a relationship takes a lot longer.
In fact, the executive director of POWA, Nhlanhla Mokwena, said it takes a woman 10 to 15 years to leave an abusive relationship.
It's a figure made all the more stark by the fact that one in four women in South Africa are in abusive relationships, according to the Medical Research Council.
Yet just 100 women a month report violence to POWA.
Mokwena said that for most women POWA is "the last straw" - the majority have been in a relationship for more than 10 years and have sought help from their family, priest and friends before approaching the organisation.
For Sanja Bornman from the Women's Legal Centre (WLC) the 'one click' campaign "might give courage to women in abusive relationships, and start some discussion".
She said: "The one click idea is another small way of sending the message that a woman does not need a partner in order to be worth something, and that being "single" is not something for women to ashamed of - which sadly is a message that still bears repeating in our society."
Meaningful discussion?
Whipping up a frenzy over their relationship status certainly seemed to unsettle the celebrities and their fans alike. But once the buzz had died down, did the campaign’s message get through?
POWA told News24 that it won’t know if the stunt prompted a spike in donations until the end of the three month campaign.
Some comments on social media questioned the purpose of the stunt, with criticism that it "trivialised a serious issue" and was an "ill-conceived" campaign. Others merely brushed the whole thing off as a bug on Facebook.
Lisa Vetten, gender researcher at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, questioned how much of a "meaningful discussion" the campaign started.
She said that raising awareness needs to be linked to some sort of action or appeal for help.
She added: "I question how much deep conversation actually happens on social media."
Armchair activism
Though Vetten said she didn't agree that it was a "trivial stunt", she said: "To raise awareness you have to keep the conversation going - it can’t run by itself."
Corli de Kock, who was behind the Ogilvy-run campaign, admitted that it does draw on the "armchair activism" of the online world.
But she said it is also a "pretty easy way to reach people" - in particular the hundreds of thousands of people that follow POWA’s celebrity ambassadors on social media.
She also pointed out that Facebook research shows that there is a 225% increase in interaction on the day of a breakup post, "which would up our chances of reaching more people".
Though POWA agrees the campaign may be controversial, a spokeswoman said: "But if people are criticising it, it means they've seen it and will talk about it."
For Bornman, one social media campaign will never be able to address the issue, "and we should not expect it to".
She said the campaign is "no more trivial than wearing coloured ribbons to raise awareness".
That said, Bornman argues that there is "a lot of fatigue" around women's issues.
"It is hard to get people on board. This is probably why POWA wanted to try something a bit off-beat, and potentially controversial," she added.
For Health and Development Africa (HDA), violence against women is the "most pervasive human rights violation experienced today".
The HDA claims that among women aged between 15 and 44, acts of violence cause more death and disability than war, cancer, malaria and traffic accidents combined.
Worth a conversation, at the very least.
To find out more about POWA’s ‘more than a click’ campaign, visit their website.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
