[Click here to view the video in this article]
Russian ad agency Hungry Boys and social organization Who Cares?! have collaborated to create the ‘Helpless Machine’, a faulty vending machine that highlights the trauma of domestic violence.
Installed at Afimall City, a shopping mall in Moscow, the machine features a built-in display, vibration sensors and a screen with a smiling woman. When someone tries to buy a snack or beverage, it becomes jammed on purpose.
When men hit the machine in frustration, the woman on the screen starts to cry and become distressed to reflect abuse in real life. The machine eventually releases the item after being hit several times; by then the crying woman would have garnered attention from passers-by.
Statistics show that around 10,000 women in Russia die from domestic abuse, and this machine aims to raise awareness of that fact.
“We want to draw attention to a problem that is hidden behind closed doors. We want to show how easy it is to ruffle a man’s feathers. If he permits himself to become aggressive in public because of some ‘trifles’ we can only begin to imagine what might happen within his own home. The Helpless Machine is an effective and hard-hitting way of getting this message across not only in Russia but across the globe,” said project creator Alexander Stefanets from Hungry Boys.
Watch a video of the machine in action below.
[via PSFK, video via Who Cares?!]
Russian ad agency Hungry Boys and social organization Who Cares?! have collaborated to create the ‘Helpless Machine’, a faulty vending machine that highlights the trauma of domestic violence.
Installed at Afimall City, a shopping mall in Moscow, the machine features a built-in display, vibration sensors and a screen with a smiling woman. When someone tries to buy a snack or beverage, it becomes jammed on purpose.
When men hit the machine in frustration, the woman on the screen starts to cry and become distressed to reflect abuse in real life. The machine eventually releases the item after being hit several times; by then the crying woman would have garnered attention from passers-by.
Statistics show that around 10,000 women in Russia die from domestic abuse, and this machine aims to raise awareness of that fact.
“We want to draw attention to a problem that is hidden behind closed doors. We want to show how easy it is to ruffle a man’s feathers. If he permits himself to become aggressive in public because of some ‘trifles’ we can only begin to imagine what might happen within his own home. The Helpless Machine is an effective and hard-hitting way of getting this message across not only in Russia but across the globe,” said project creator Alexander Stefanets from Hungry Boys.
Watch a video of the machine in action below.
[via PSFK, video via Who Cares?!]