Center for Multimedia Arts Collaborates on Public Service Announcement Targeting Domestic Violence

For release: January 23, 2009
For press information, contact Simone Notter Wilson (901) 678-4164

The Center for Multimedia Arts (CMA) at the University of Memphis' FedEx Institute of Technology in cooperation with executive producer Howard Robertson of Trust Marketing and Dan Conaway produced a new public service announcement (PSA) targeting domestic violence.  The Chill, Don't Kill PSA is a continuation of the anti-crime public service campaign for Memphis and Shelby County's Operation: Safe Community (OSC), the anti-crime initiative of Memphis Fast Forward.

Previous elements of the campaign included themes such as: No Deals, Gun Crime is Jail Time, and Blue C.R.U.S.H., which resembled an episode of the popular prime-time TV show COPS, and was also produced in collaboration with the CMA.

"Chill, Don't Kill" was written and produced to address the sharp increase of domestic violence in Memphis in 2008.

"It was really important to us that the spot cuts through the commercial clutter on television to reach and affect the target audience," says Robertson. "This was the first spot of the campaign that was shot from the vantage point of the perpetrator, which explains its powerful impact."

Since the commercial's premier in mid-January, OSC and the Memphis Police Department have reported an increase of calls from domestic violence victims who now want to speak out and cite the Chill, Don't Kill PSA as reason.

"The on-location camerawork and sensitive editing of Eric Wilson, multimedia producer at the Center for Multimedia Arts, takes the viewer inside the problem from the perpetrator's point of view; combined with Skip Pitt's gritty voiceover, it really brings the message home," Conaway explains.