Coercive control is an insidious kind of domestic violence. It’s when a cosy night in turns into isolating you from friends and family, when caring that you eat well becomes expecting a say in your body shape, when wanting to know when you’ll be home turns into needing to know where you are at all times.
The campaign by New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development, aimed at fostering safe, positive, and equal relationships, began with phase one, Own The Feels.
Now Clemenger UnLtd, the agency that connects the capabilities of Clemenger BBDO Wellington, BrandWorld, Perceptive, Proximity and the local operations of LEVO in New Zealand, has produced phase two, Love Creep.
The platform helps young people experience coercive control, validating those who feel controlled, waking users up to their emotional abuse (knowingly or not), and giving family and friends a way to broach the subject. It was developed using research that shows young people in New Zealand are three times more likely than the general population to be victims of coercive control. Evaluative Love Better research showed that 68% of participants had experienced controlling behaviours but are often not able to discern between “poor behaviour” and the pattern of behaviours define coercive control.
Love Creep uses real life examples (Love Bites) to educate people on how to spot controlling behaviours from isolation to surveillance, gaslighting, and more. It also enables them to create their own patterns of control based on what they may have experienced, seen, or used.
The core of the platform is a digital experience, supported on TikTok, Meta, YouTube and Snapchat, as well as partnerships with media and cinema to strengthen the message and deepen understanding of the topic.
Experience coercion yourself: The digital experience currently houses 108 examples of coercive control reconstructed from reports by perpetrators, victims, friends and family.
The digital experience also includes coercive phrases listed by type, eg: isolation, financial control, jealousy or suspicion, love bombing, gaslighting…etc.
Zaffa Christian from the Ministry of Social Development, stated, “Love is filled with intense feelings that make control hard to spot and easy to deny. Lovecreep.nz helps young people explore what it looks, sounds and feels like, so they understand why the ‘love’ they’re experiencing doesn’t feel right. This is a tool that seeks to prevent behaviours becoming ingrained and potentially life threatening in relationships now and in the future.”
Brigid Alkema of Clemenger UnLtd, added, “Controlling behaviour is difficult to understand if you haven’t experienced it. We wanted to push past observing someone being controlled, and instead elicit what it actually feels like. A simulation of what it’s like to go through Love Creep. Making you feel confused, small and worthless. The challenge was to make the individual Love Bites seem like they had loving intention.”
Director, Matt Von Trott, commented, “Lovecreep.nz was an opportunity to engage a young audience in a bold way. The challenge was assembling videos on-the-fly to empower users to edit their own experiences on their phones or desktop. This required generating adaptive live-streaming playlists, while trying to keep the experience simple and interesting to play with.”
Credits:
Client: Ministry of Social Development
Creative Agency: Clemenger UnLtd
Lead Production Company: Assembly
Director: Matt Von Trott
Film Production Company: Scoundrel
Director: Jamie Lawrence
Sound Design: Beatworms
Photography: Loupe Agency
Photographer: Steve Boniface
Retouching: Notion London Retouching
Media: OMD Wellington
Social Management: FUSE
Research Company: Verian
