CLIENT : Santander
PROJECT : IN HER SHOES
AGENCY : HELO
An immersive maze and real stories of survival shed light on one of society’s most pernicious and destructive problems. The most dangerous place for a woman is in her own home.
That staggering, deeply disturbing statistic formed the core insight of a campaign created by Arnold Worldwide and HELO to raise awareness about domestic violence. The campaign, supported by Santander Bank in partnership with the NCADV (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence), worked to both raise awareness of the issue and provide tangible support to address the number one reason women don’t leave abusive relationships — lack of financial independence. HELO director Annie Saunders created a gripping, emotionally moving immersive experience combining audio gathered from interviews with real survivors of domestic abuse with a maze-like installation set in a 1600 sq ft house built at the heart of the Oculus in NYC’s financial district. The house, from the outside an iconic representation of the American “home,” appeared overnight in the arcade of the Oculus.
Open to the public, the experience took participants one-by-one through the front door of the house into an interior that stripped away the pretense of the idyllic family home to reveal the complicated, multi-layered, and life and death struggle of someone caught in a cycle of domestic abuse.
The experience culminated with each participant having the opportunity to meet with a domestic abuse counselor to help them process and integrate the emotionally charged experience they had just completed. In addition to the 2-day experience, Saunders directed a short companion film.
