NSW Government Launches New Coercive Control Campaign, Led by Entropico
The campaign will also support upcoming changes to NSW legislation that introduce an offence for coercive control.
Coercive control is when someone repeatedly hurts, scares, or isolates another person to control them, and as a very serious issue, Entropico knew that bringing the right creative approach to the campaign would be an immense challenge.
Entropico team lead and executive producer Timothy Burnett said, ‘coercive control is a really tricky and complex subject. But more often than not, having strict creative obstructions can lead you to unique places. The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) team did some amazing research, consultation and testing, and the campaign ended up being quite simple, but powerful and moving. Getting the right balance between informative and engaging is something at the core of everything Entropico does.
Leading the creative and strategy from Entropico were Tom McMullan and Camille Bui Viet. "Post #MeToo, we’ve seen a mass revisiting of cultural moments in film and media through a new, more enlightened lens," said Camille.
"We’re now looking back on our own experiences and questioning, was that behaviour ever really love? Our creative approach highlights this contrast between the perceived love and actual abuse in order to assist the audience to identify coercive control in their own experiences, as well as the relationships around them."
‘Coercive control is insidious. It hides in plain sight’, said Tom. "And because it’s a pattern of behaviour that varies case to case, it can be difficult for victim-survivors to pinpoint exactly what’s happening to them. These films aim to communicate what coercive control feels like, and help people experiencing it (or observing it in others) make a clear distinction between love and abuse."
Entropico’s various teams worked across the project from the pitching and strategic phases, all the way through to post production.
"Being able to bring on the production and post production team early is something really unique with this offering of Entropico", said Timothy. "We had the whole production team diving into script adjustments and changes very early on. This set the creative up for a real win, as we weren’t developing scripts that couldn’t be executed, or had to be dramatically adjusted later for budget reasons."
Entropico brought on Charlotte Evans to direct, who said, "as a woman and a mother of two young girls, I feel extremely passionate about this campaign and have been fortunate to work with a passionate and talented team to pull this together. The challenge with these scripts was that from a legal standpoint, we needed to show that coercive control always comprises a pattern of behaviour, so we needed multiple behavioural examples over different time periods. Creatively I wanted to ensure that the campaign felt authentic and relatable as well as subtle but intentional all within 25 seconds. To be able to be part of a campaign that helps people recognise their or others’ current situations, has been an incredible achievement."
