The agency behind a campaign against out-of-control drinking has been criticised for its most recent advertisement.
The advertisement - carried in today’s Irish Independent - features a photo of a young woman who has returned home from a night out, clearly upset, while another female stands at her bedroom door in the background.
The tag line on the ad reads: "Who’s following in your footsteps: Out-of-control-drinking has consequences."
Clíona Saidléar, Director of the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI), said: "The sinister inference is that the young girl has been attacked on her way home. The message is it's her fault for being drunk and what is more it is also her mother's fault for her own drinking habits."
The rolemodels.ie campaign - which is supported by Diageo, Barnardos and DCU, among others - has defended its advert saying it has "been wildly misunderstood and misinterpreted by the Director of the Rape Crisis Network".
It is chaired by Barnardos' CEO Fergus Finlay and its board members include Aine Lynch, who is CEO of the National Parents Council, Diageo's director for Ireland, David Smith, and Kieran Mulvey, the CEO of the Labour Relations Commission.
The campaign was set up to "break the cycle of passing a cultural acceptance of excessive drinking from one generation to the next".
Ms Saidléar has called for the immediate removal of the advert which, she says, "blames victims of sexual violence for the crimes that have been committed against them".
Source: Irish Examiner, 12/03/15
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