New Child Abuse Ad Divides Public (Video)

Adults Surviving Child Abuse (ASCA) has just launched a confronting new ad campaign aimed at highlighting the devastating long-term impacts of child abuse on adult survivors.

It features a father of a bride making a humorous wedding speech. Halfway through the ad he says: “I remember the first words that I ever said to her after sex – ‘Don’t tell Mum.’ ”

“If only it was this easy to get over child abuse,” says the voiceover.

It is supposed to highlight the lack of support for adult survivors, and the fallacy of the idea that people should just “get over” abuse they experienced as children.

However the advertisement has received divided feedback from the public.

“As a mother of children who have been sexually abused, I find the ad offensive. Child sex abuse is not a joke. The ad is insulting & I find it disgusting that humour is being used in relation to child sex abuse” wrote SueP.

Similarly, Bing wrote, “Why taint one of the beautiful things in our culture. I doubt there would be many Brides that would ask a abusive father to give them away an make a speech in reality. Why not leave such a special moment between father and daughter unsullied by the evil that is child abuse. It is in bad taste and the message should be delivered in another way.”

Others were more supportive.

Jacinda wrote, “Like this ad or not, it will make people think about the awful secrecy of abuse and it’s huge impact on individuals and to our society. This ad is not trying to be humorous. It really made me feel VERY uncomfortable (really stomach churning), sad and empathetic. Abuse needs to be outed before we can deal with it. Hopefully this ad is just one step in a long journey to tackle such issues”.

What do you think? Watch the ad below.