Numbers from a recent Avon Study show just how prevalent domestic violence is in the United States. The study reveals that 60% of Americans know a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault, and one in three women say they’ve been a victim of domestic violence.
Actor Peter Hermann joined forces with his wife, actress Mariska Hargitay, in the PSA ads for “No More” along with more than 40 other celebrities. “No More” works with organizations like the National Domestic Violence Hotline and Break the Cycle to galvanize support and action to end domestic violence.
“I look at our willingness and our unwillingness to talk about it and how little we talk about it and the conversation that we’re handing off to our kids,” Hermann said. “So I don’t want to give them the burden of starting the conversation. They might have to perfect it, they might have to deepen it, but by God, I don’t want them to have to start it.”
The PSA campaign serves to both supplement and complement what is happening in the government to fight domestic violence, he said.
“The fact that the conversation is happening at governmental levels and at levels of an individual advocate, somewhere where they are struggling to find attention that they can point to the television, they can point to a PSA and to say, that’s what I do, that’s the movement that I’m part of, that is incredibly encouraging,” he said.
Emily DeCiccio