Family Violence Commercial 2
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“FAMILY MEN DON’T DO FAMILY VIOLENCE” CAMPAIGN
- to be Launched by Comedian, Akmal Saleh & former Premier, Steve Bracks
BACKGROUND TO CAMPAIGN
Marking World Health Day (Monday 7 April), comedian Akmal Saleh and former Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, launched a TV commercial, that has been produced by the Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre (SMRC), featuring high profile celebrities and community leaders from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds, as part of their Family Men Don’t do Family Violence campaign to prevent the incidence of family violence.
Given that family violence is an issue which affects all communities, it was decided to develop a campaign which featured men from many ethnic and religious backgrounds, all giving the advice, “Knock it off, mate”. The TV commercial, which features prominent leaders from Indigenous, Middle Eastern, Asian, European, Anglo Australian, Islander and African backgrounds, will be telecast as a community service announcement on a range of television networks, including the major commercial networks. Apart from comedian, Akmal Saleh, the commercial features Jason McCartney (former AFL player), Israel Folau (Melbourne Storm), Jason Johnston (Essendon), Alwyn Davey (Essendon), Hon. James Merlino MP (Victorian Minister for Multicultural Affairs), Uncle Jack Charles (Indigenous elder and actor), Sheik Fehmi (Imam), George Lekakis (Victorian Multicultural Commission Chairperson), Waleed Aly (author), Phong Nguyen (former Ethnic Communities Council Chairperson) and Abdinur Weli (Imam).
SMRC recognised that men are the greatest influencers of each other. Conversations about family violence are generally had with women, but men can become champions against family violence in their communities. With so many high profile men donating their time to appear in the commercial, we hope that their social influence will have an impact on men across Victoria, regardless of their cultural background. Family violence crosses class and cultural lines.
The campaign was launched on World Health Day as family violence is a mental and physical health determinant. We are supporting this commercial, as our hope is that having these well respected male role models speaking directly to men in the community with the advice to ‘knock it off’, will be more effective than any multilingual pamphlet that is produced. With the terrific support from the TV industry, this message will also get out as wide as possible and hopefully change men’s attitudes to family violence.
The commercial, funded by VicHealth under the Respect and Responsibility program’s “Preventing Violence Against Women” initiative, will run from 8 April to the end of June 2008. To test whether it has changed attitudes to family violence, focus groups will be conducted with men across the Victorian community in July. The Victorian Immigration & Refugee Women’s Coalition (VIRWC) are supporters of the project.
Project contact: Denise Goldfinch, Settlement Planning & Projects Manager, 9496 0225 or 0403 587 060
Media contact: Hutch Hussein 0438 507 103