Beyond Blue Campaign Analysis

In 2014 Beyond Blue released a video campaign that illustrated that ‘Discrimination stops with you’ and posted a message that ‘No one should be made to feel like crap just for being who they are’ (Beyond Blue 2014). The campaign dubbed The Invisible Discriminator showed a sequence of events where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience racism and links how these incidents that may seem insignificant to those being unconsciously racist can lead to anxiety and depression.

The Teleological Ethical Theories are concerned with the consequences of actions which means the basic standards of our actions being morally right or wrong depends on the good or evil generated (Business Jargons, n.d.). More specifically this campaign relates

The campaign is a great representation of the Utilitarianism theory as its ultimate aim is to eradicate and at the very least reduce discrimination to people of an indigenous decent pushing for maximum satisfaction for this group of people who are all affected by this in one way or another. The campaign incorporates a number of factors that show good ethical decision-making. This is mainly evident throughout the campaign slogan that is “No one should be made to feel like crap, just for being who they are” (Beyond Blue 2014) this in itself pushes viewers to question their own personal thoughts and actions and draws in for further analysis on how we as Australians treat one another. It also expresses the damages that racial discrimination can cause and ultimately it is to raise awareness of both racial discrimination and mental illness’. It was also depicted well as the actors are displayed as healthy, kind and caring citizens and pushes that they are as capable as anyone else as it tries to beat the stereotype that is surrounded by the Indigenous

Beyond Blue did an excellent job of this within the Invisible Discriminator campaign. Firstly, as mentioned earlier all of the actors/ actresses were depicted as healthy, kind and caring citizens which coincide well with Stockwell and Scott’s Guide to Fair and Cross-Cultural Reporting (1961) that states that visual representation must not conform to prejudices, stereotyped beliefs and perceptions about Indigenous people. The campaign is also promoting the empowerment of Indigenous people which also follows the guideline that the collection and use of information for a project shouldn’t be used against or be considered detrimental to the people from whom the information comes from (Stockwell & Scott, 1961). The campaign effectively adheres to the guidelines to not isolate communities from the general public with frequent, irrelevant references to ethnicity or ‘them’ and to only refer to ethnicity only in cases where it is relevant or necessary for the audience’s greater comprehension of core issues and to consider how you would feel in their situation (Stockwell & Scott, 1961) which is ultimately the aim of the campaign