A Dublin-based ad agency entered the campaign around Ireland’s upcoming abortion referendum on Thursday, May 3, with a striking image projected onto a well-known statue of a woman in the city.
The statue, called “Aspiration,” shows a female form scaling the side of Dublin’s Treasury Building. The projected image appeared to hang like a chain from the ankle of the woman, with a weight attached in the shape of a number eight.
Irish voters go to the polls on May 25, when they will be asked whether to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the country’s constitution. The amendment gives an equal right to life to the unborn as to the mother, restricting access to abortion in Ireland in most circumstances.
The projection was by an agency called the Public House.
A statement to Storyful from Catriona Campbell, the agency’s managing partner, read:
“Over the past number of weeks we’ve had a number of conversations with representatives from the Yes campaign, and as voter registration deadline approached, realised we had to act.
“For us, in a campaign that has been noisy, graphic and insensitive, we wanted to counterbalance that with a simple, striking, poignant image of the struggle of women in Ireland today.
“This was about a collective of people applying their creativity to something they cared deeply about, who wanted to do something rather than nothing.
“We are proud of what we did and hope that it will make some sort of impact in the coming weeks and add another element to the debate.” Credit: The Public House via Storyful
