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On Monday, singer Jurgis Didžiulis shared a still on social media, in which Telia Lietuva’s clever publicity was captured not, as usual, with two Lavrinovičius brothers, but even with three. But the text that accompanies the photo is not about that.
The artist was outraged by the company’s decision to use the faces of Darjus and Kšštof Lavrinovičius, who had run into trouble with law enforcement in the past, for their new proposals.
“Erica and I take sex crimes and violence against women very seriously. For this, we decided to leave Telia Lietuva. Promotional faces either resonate or don’t resonate in value. You can attract new customers with your image, but you can also lose them. They also send additional messages to the public, in this case, that Telia does not take sexual violence seriously.
For us, violence against women is a priority issue and we simply cannot pay money to a company that promotes youth services to people convicted of gang rape. We believe that with our wallets we not only buy goods, but also send signals to companies and the public about our own values: what we have fun with, what we care about, what we support and what not, “Facebook wrote the interpreter.
Luke April / 15 min photo / Jurgis Didžiulis and Erica Jennings
According to J.Didžiulis, his family finds it uncomfortable to buy the services of this company, and he also wants to express mistrust, because Telia has so far been considered to have an impeccable reputation as a leader in the field of social responsibility.
Telia declares caring as one of her values. In our eyes, this advertising option conveys the exact opposite message: “I don’t care about gang rape,” that’s why we left Telia, argued the musician.
The fact that the family abandons the service provider is also due to the fact that the choice of siblings for advertising allegedly does not send signals to young people about sexual violence and its consequences.
“Of course, many will say that the brothers served their punishment, which happened a long time ago, it has been a long time and they have done a lot for the good of Lithuania on the basketball court. Everyone has the right to have their own opinion, but commentators, the majority of whom are men who have never been raped, have the right to decide what is “enough” time to forgive and forget about such a crime.
It is unlikely that the company will be able to do this by going public and thus associating its brand and services with its criminal record and reminding all victims of such crimes of their painful experience, ”wrote J. Didžiulis.
According to him, people themselves choose what to remember, what is important to them. The artist saw a tendency for, say, parties or other phenomena in this case to be taken by the public almost more seriously than rape cases.
As J.Didžiulis wrote, the fact that Telia chose to advertise “Hedgehog” with convicted rapists does not show that we have forgotten the past. “But [rodo] the fact that in 2020 gang rape is not yet something that provokes a serious reaction of rejection in our society, ”he shared.
“One in four women in Europe has suffered sexual or physical violence. In Lithuania, almost a third according to 2015 data. Many do not report anyone out of fear, shame or fear that institutions and society will not take it. Seriously. Reporting an attack can often also be a traumatic experience due to the reactions it receives. And they are such that the woman accuses herself, “No need to go to clubs or dress provocatively” as a justification violence, the punishments are also often ridiculous.The victim usually pays twice for the attack if they nevertheless decide to seek help.
The Lavrinovich brothers’ ads constantly remind us how “seriously” we continue to look at sexual violence against women in Lithuania. The moral of their story is that by playing basketball well they can redeem their guilt and reach heights. But it also sends a signal, and in this particular case to young people, to Hedgehog’s main audience, that the perpetrators have a full life after the rape. And send a signal to the girls that everything will end well for your attacker. Instead, I would like to send an “all will be well” signal to the rape victims who need it most, “the musician said.
Towards the end of the text, J.Didžiulis invited everyone to consider: how many success stories are there at this time, when girls who experienced violence reached the peak of their careers, formed families?
“There are many women and there are almost no stories. Because in Lithuania it is still a taboo subject. However, anyone who has experienced sexual violence or knows a friend, mother, sister, cousin, co-worker who has experienced such an event, knows how difficult it is to recover after such a traumatic experience. And no one would dare to tell them that “they suffer enough, enough time has passed.” Victims who have survived violence should be considered heroines, not attackers.
Yes, as a family we love Lithuanian basketball and we believe in integrating convicts into society and giving a second chance, we also promote forgiveness and understanding, in cases where a person really makes an effort to atone for their guilt and sincerely try to repair the damage. However, as consumers, we cannot support a commercial campaign that conflicts with our value system in which we live and that we seek to instill in our children. We cannot pay money to a company that ‘normalizes’ violence against women through its advertising. We left Telia for that – concluded J. Didžiulis.
Ericos Jennings’ personal experience spoke
J.Didžiulis 15 minutes He commented that it was precisely because of painful personal experience that he did not want to miss out on this fact. When asked about those who have suffered or are responsible for sexual abuse, the interpreter and his wife hope that society will not forgive him in the future.
“For us, this issue is very close to my heart because Erica has experienced sexual violence, has problems with it and has many friends who have also faced it.
The biggest problem is that nobody takes it seriously. And we don’t want to be part of that normalization. Even if there are not many women who have experienced this, I think they should be treated with respect and support, given the traumatic experience that it is. ” 15 minutes J.Didžiulis speaks.
The interpreter emphasized that in this case there is no attempt to target specific individuals, more importantly, to discuss why large companies choose such a communication strategy.
After speaking publicly about their decision to stop using Telia, J.Didžiulis and E.Jennings hope that those steps will contribute to sex education and show how important it is for boys to be able to deal with girls, so that women in the society feel whole and safe.
Telia: we take into account the reputational impact on the company
15 minutes After contacting Telia, an official company comment was submitted. He claims that these faces were chosen for publicity not by chance, but also apologizes for the fact that the publicity may have turned out to be unacceptable to the general public.
“When choosing famous people to be the face of the brand, we are always guided by Telia’s values and consider the potential impact on the company’s reputation. Hedgehog’s new campaign is no exception, in which We provide 3 times more data for the same amount by the end of the year For this campaign, we selected the twin brothers Lavrinovičius, who have repeatedly participated in various commercial announcements, public and charitable projects.
Over the decades of basketball players’ careers, they have earned not only the title of sports ambassadors for the country, but also the trust and sympathy of much of the public. These are the merits of them and the arguments why we chose to represent the Lavrinovich brothers and the Hedgehog.
The company unconditionally adheres to the rule of law and respects the privacy of these people and their families, so we cannot comment on the distant past of these people, morally or legally. In any case, we understand the sensitivity of the public issue and regret that our publicity may have seemed unacceptable to a portion of the public, ”Telia said in a written response.
Bitė got stuck earlier due to advertising
However, this is not the first time that Jurgis has spoken harshly about the communications provider. He had to experience an almost analogous situation in 2013, when Lavrinovičiai was exhibited at the Bitė advertising booth. This time, J. Didžiulis and his wife, the interpreter Erica Jennings, also announced that they would refuse services because of the chosen faces.
Laura Bielskė, then Bitė’s PR representative, reported that the new Bit be commercials will no longer be filmed with her siblings.
It is true that almost in the same week, J. Didžiulis, who sharply described the situation in his comment at the time, apologized to the brothers for the criticism: “As a family, we fully understand how your relatives and relatives feel due to the additional and unwanted media attention. We wanted to draw attention to Bitė’s value dilemma, but at the same time the attention also fell on the families of the brothers.
We don’t really like going to other people’s kitchens and there is (there was) no similar intent in our posts and Facebook posts. We are not moral specialists to value them as human beings.
We are not guardians of ethics to determine if someone has served their sentence to the public. Our decision to change operators and make it public on Facebook was related to Bit’s irresponsible behavior, using advertising faces with a specific and controversial past.“, – Jurgis Didžiulis published such a post on his Facebook account.
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