Blog #6 Salvation Army puts #thedress in a new light with powerful domestic violence ad

   The article I am blogging about is titled, Salvation Army puts #thedress in a new light with powerful domestic violence ad written by Abby Phillip of the Washington Post. This article started by mentioning the famous dress that exploded over the internet and had millions wondering...was the dress white and gold, or black and blue. Days after this post went viral the Southern African brand of the Salvation army tweeted an image of a very bruised women wearing the gold and white dress with a caption saying, "Why is it so hard to see black and blue". The ad also includes this powerful message, "The only illusion is if you think it was her choice". 

    The Salvation Army Southern Africa division tweeted this on Twitter while also saying that one in 6 women are victims of abuse and even started a hash tag #stopabuseagaisntwomen. When the original image was posted it was retweeted 16,321 times and favorited 7,817 times. The original image was created by an agency in Johannesburg and was posted in the Cape Times Newspaper on Friday morning. In the Cape Times they linked it to the work that The Salvation Army does with abused women, children, and human trafficked women. They wanted to bring awareness to a growing problem. This problem is also seem with many famous sports team this year such as Ray Rice punching his girlfriend in an elevator and a hockey player from The Los Angeles Kings charged with domestic violence. It is an epidemic in today's culture. Hours after the Southern Africa Salvation Army tweeted the picture, the Salvation Army in Canada tweeted the same image. This image sparked positive feedback to not only the Salvation Army for "getting the message right" but for incorporating such an iconic image with it. Celebrities began tweeting their respect towards the Salvation Army. Chelsea Radler posted, "@SalvationArmySA brilliant campaign to #StopAbuseAgainstWomen that social justice marketing profs can learn from. #thedress #iwd.

  Last week I blogged about the original picture and how it caused a conniption because people did not know the color of it but this week it is important to blog about the dress because it raises awareness to such a problem in our culture. I think The Salvation army and Cape Times Newspaper got it right with this ad, it has feeling and provokes emotion while relating to common topics. This relates to our Social Media class because it shows the power of the internet and how even the most ridiculous things that become viral can be used to spread powerful messages.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/06/the-salvation-armys-powerful-new-ad-on-domestic-violence-puts-thedress-debate-in-a-new-light/