The brands have spoken, and they want you to know that domestic violence and sexual assault are bad. In fact, the brands not only think they're bad, but have a theory as to why they persist: the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault don't have a strong enough brand. So, to help get America talking about these issues, the brands created a brand, and partnered with other brands to promote this brand. And this is how No More—a more or less imaginary brand made by brands to help domestic violence and sexual assault with their brand problem—came to be. It's no wonder Roger Goodell and NFL owners ran to No More with open arms when their $10 billion sports enterprise was faced with a serious public relations crisis, the culmination of years of paying little thought to players accused of domestic violence. No More was the perfect fit for a brand with a problem. So it came to pass that the NFL, as part of its anti-domestic violence initiative, partnered with a branding campaign co-founded by one of its crisis-management consultants and, this past weekend, ran an advertisement for it before the biggest audience in American television history. Before going further, let's acknowledge a difficult part of this discussion: domestic violence and sexual assault are horrific and almost unbelievably widespread, and any help in the fight against them is welcome. What No More sets out to do is good. Still, this is the beginning of a story we've all seen before with Pinktober, LIVESTRONG, and even the incredibly important but eventually coopted AIDS ribbon. What begins as a push for change becomes an invisible force telling us that we must buy specific items and wear certain logos so we can feel better about ourselves, and if we go along, we do so not because we care but because we don't want to feel left out. What good this does for people in need of help isn't always clear, but it's great for the brands, because all they have to do is slap logos on a few products and/or advertisements andthrow a few pennies to charity to make themselves seem socially conscious. These logos are an embodiment of magical thinking, promising that you can do good without having to actually do anything. They're shams, basically. Now, we've got another one. How No More began No More, the latest entry in the great American tapestry of brands saying they care, started in 2009—or at least talk about starting it began in 2009. Virginia Witt, director of No More (the small group doesn't have any full-time professional staff), said that's when domestic-violence and sexual assault groups decided to "radically change how these issues are seen and addressed, and in doing so brought together dozens of leaders from the prevention field, along with experts in marketing, communications and branding." The problem, they decided, was that these issues had a brand problem. The solution? Make a logo for them. From Witt (emphasis mine): The idea was to give domestic violence and sexual assault something these issues had never had: a unifying brand. The idea to bring these two movements together came from the interconnectedness of the issues. Intimate partner violence, as defined by the CDC, includes both, and very often they are experienced together. And so after a year of planning, hours of donated volunteer time and consultation from leading creative experts, research and focus testing the NO MORE brand was developed in 2010 and 2011. The logo was created pro bono by Sterling Brands, who've done brand work for Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Disney, Bayer, Google, Visa, Time Warner, and Pepsico. Sterling Brands' website says it does three things really well: brand strategy, brand design, and brand innovation. They certainly sound qualified to create a brand, and they did. It was unveiled in 2012, but because this was something created by and for brands, who by definition love public relations, there was also an official public launch in March 2013. So, from start to finish, it took about five years (and the doubtless valuable work of a number of marketing professionals) for the brands to give domestic violence and sexual assault a brand so that we could support the fight against them better. When I sent Witt a list of questions about what exactly No More is and what exactly it is they do, her response mentioned the AIDS ribbon and the fight to raise awareness of the virus three times. The AIDS ribbon, she told me, was their model. So it may be worth revisiting the first big moment for the AIDS ribbon, which was not given an official public launch after years of research and focusing testing, but crashed the Tonys after being created in a few weeks by a group of artists who gathered in a shared gallery space in New York City because they just had to do something. From The New York Times: EVERYTHING was, at first, handmade. Painters, curators, museum administrators, they stood at work tables in a costume studio crafting their memorials. Some cut the narrow red grosgrain from spools; others folded the strips of fabric and stitched gold safety pins to the backs. They talked all the while, caught up with each other as at a quilting bee, tedious and comforting. And amazingly efficient. After four and a half hours of elegy and dish, that first bee last May produced 3,000 ribbons, enough for the satin lapels and glittering bodices at the Tonys a week later. Consistency had not been a priority. Jeremy Irons's came out looking like basset-hound ears; Willa Kim's was the size of a pinkie. But they were enough alike to make a statement; the question was, what statement? Viewers of the telecast were never told that the pert red inverted V's were meant to symbolize awareness of AIDS; and so, in their debut, the ribbons actually came to symbolize ignorance of the awareness of AIDS. It was not the last of the ironies. Who is behind all this? READ MORE HERE AS I CAN NOT POST THE ENTIRE ARTICLE http://deadspin.com/no-more-the-nfls-domestic-violence-partner-is-a-sham-1683348576
I love how Domestic Violence has suddendly become like a new crime to people who watch the NFL.....This stuff has been happening since Adam smacked Eve for eating from the apple tree.Nothing new here
Read the other day that only 8% of the NFL breast cancer campaign actually goes to finding a cure. Thought that was crazy considering the league participates throughout the entire month of October. Obviously the campaign raises a ton of awareness, but was surprised how little funds.
Lol. Pretty interesting. I think most ppl with some common sense would admit that that stuff is all bullshit.
That "no more" stuff on the NFL broadcasts is fuckin insulting. The league has an issue with domestic violence and an issue with enforcing it.... SO... We, as fans, have to get that stuff crammed down our throats now? How about you show it to your fucking employees and your fucking players, Goodell? I could go on and on in a rant about this but I won't. Thanks for posting, mute, I am not surprised it's a sham. I look forward to reading that
I kind of looked the other way with the ones with the players. I understood what they were trying to do and I initially gave them a B minus for the effort. But then when I saw the one's with the actors and actresses who...were...so choked up...that they...couldn't even say...their prepared.......lines? What a fucking crock of fraudulent bullshit. Unless one of them just came from a beat down, don't put some paid actress up there faking severe emotional distress, tears and all, about such a serious issue. Is that what method acting is? Fuck them and fuck the NFL for greenlighting it. _
I'm fairly certain Leroy didn't watch the No More commercials and have a revelation about beating his wife. I really can't figure out who these ads are aimed at. Am I supposed to have a heart to heart with Leroy now because I just realized it's bad for Leroy to beat his wife even though I'm not friends with Leroy because he's a wife beater?
original LINK FIXED! http://deadspin.com/no-more-the-nfls-domestic-violence-partner-is-a-sham-1683348576
A Leroy is that guy who wears flip flops year round, wife beater, Dolphins shorts, mullet, ect... Feel free to insert your own white trash name.
Sounds like nothing more than a "guilt trip" scam aimed at the "evil" NFL. From what I heard/seen, crime rates, including DV, are a lot lower among NFL players than the general public.
No more letting favorite teams of the commish get by with cheating. No more fining players for wearing their own cleats. No more politically correct "justice" for off the field actions. No more Thursday night games. No more London games. No more pushing the draft out on the calendar. No more "buy merchandise from NFL licensed outlets or you are supporting gangs" commercials. No more Play 60 commercials. No more part time employed officials. No more monopolized Sunday Ticket TV packages, open it up for all providers instead. No more commercials with Peyton Manning. Fix some real shit NFL.
X100 What an idiotic ad campaign. Like you said ... No problem with the players calling for the violence to stop. But those "this is so difficult to talk about, I can barely gather myself to do it" ads are completely asinine and insulting. Is it really that hard to talk about? REALLY?? That's so strange to me because I can remember my dad telling me as a young boy, to never hit a woman ... And for the life of me, I can't remember him shedding one tear, or swallowing hard or letting out one exasperated sigh. It seemed really easy for him to explain it to me. Fuck you Hillary Swank. Fuck you Cris Carter. Take that phony bullshit somewhere else.
You know, I said something about this initially when the Ray Rice thing happend. Not that I suggest anybody beat anybody, but this false fradulent thinking that comes with stuff like this. People jump on their moral horses and run out with pitchforks, but do people really care about it? Or is it just trendy to jump on these socially conscious bandwagons? These corporations dont truly care. They care about their profits. These sham organizations come out of the woodwork during these "epidemics". People always look to deflect responsibility and the nfl is nio different.
Lol, this needs to be an inner organization thing. Why should us fans have to see this shit now? It's not like were getting drunk after football games and beating our wives and girlfriends in the stadium parking lot when we lose... These players are beating their women and going to make millions on sundays... whatever
you are right... it is more like we get drunk during the games and come home and THEN our wife's beat the shit out of us - lol
With all the crusades the NFL gets involved in, why is it that they have never launched a campaign to raise awareness and research funding to fight prostate cancer? While there is a statistically low prevalence of breast cancer among NFL players, prostate cancer will strike the equivalent of five complete teams of the 32 every year. Men make up the vast majority of serious NFL fans but the most common cancer they face is ignored by the NFL. Not to denigrate the importance of both the breast cancer and anti-violence endeavors but perhaps the new NFL will develop enough spine to target health concerns based on NFL player and fan demographics rather than being guilt tripped into supporting those with the best PR machine. Or maybe they should concentrate on being the best professional football organization possible and leave the feel good social programs to the United Way.
