Ad Addresses Child Abuse By Displaying An Image And Message Only Kids Can See

Gizmodo shared the video above, which explains how the ad works. A taller person sees the unmarked face of a little boy under the text "Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it," while those under the age of ten (or anyone shorter than four feet, five inches) see the image of the same child with bruises and cuts on his face, set between the phrase "If somebody hurts you, phone us and we'll help you," and a phone number.

It's a tricky strategy, but one that just may work in reaching out to children who don't know who to go to about the abuse they're enduring, while their aggressor might not even notice it, or if they do, they wouldn't know that the sign is actually giving the child necessary information to get help.

It's an interesting marketing technique, to be sure, but the more cynical side of me wonders how this approach might be used for more sinister motives, like to target children separately for things that aren't necessarily good for them. Then again, I grew up in the era when marketing for cigarettes wasn't necessarily all that different from marketing for cereal.