Abuse Survivors Speak Out
By: ALICIA GRISWOLD
In-kind donations from retired Young & Rubicam creative
director Stewart Birbrower have lifted From Darkness To
Light, a non-profit child abuse prevention program in
Charleston, SC from obscurity to prominence.
Birbrower, who once worked on the American Express
‘Don’t leave home without it’ campaign, joined the
foundation’s executive director, Anne Lee. He recruited
companies such as Matrix Media, Crew Cuts and Click 3X,
which yielded radio PSAs, billboards and four 30-second TV
spots. They will run through 2001 in Charleston, and will
likely be picked up by abuse programs in other cities,
including Los Angeles.
Shot by Birbrower in Charleston and Kiawah Island off South
Carolina, the spots feature adult survivors of incest and
abuse, and target adults. ‘Most PSAs on the subject have a
call to action directed at children,’ says Lee. ‘We
target adults because they are the ones who have to stop
this.
The campaign begins with ‘Faces’, in which close-ups of
adult survivors, Lee among them, relate their experience.
Emotions flicker from confusion to resignation to baffled
disbelief as the stories merge: ‘I was 7…I was 3…My
mother didn’t even know…’ Actor Perry King from
NBC’s recently tanked Titans provides an authoritative
voiceover.
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