In late November this year, Yves Saint Laurent launched a new campaign that had nothing to do with beauty. This campaign is called ABUSE IS NOT LOVE. The beauty label has chosen to shine a spotlight on domestic abuse and we have found the campaign and its imagery very powerful.

ABUSE IS NOT LOVE draws attention to the fact that an overwhelming one in three women experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime, and its rates increased by 30 to 60 percent during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The campaign highlights 9 key warning signs of an abusive relationship and outlines that abuse can come in many forms; physical, sexual, financial or psychological. The key message of the campaign focuses on psychological as many people in abusive relationships often don’t realise they are victims of psychological abuse and coercive control

We found the imagery of this campaign really shows how psychological abuse chips away at everything a person is, until they feel they have nothing left. At Safespots we see women every day who are left feeling empty and worthless because they have been slowly ground down by a partner. Unlike physical abuse there are often no physical scars but the mental scars remain and can often take a long time to recover from.

We are pleased to see a top name brand like Yves Saint Laurent shining a light on this issue.