“Congratulations, it’s a girl! She has a 50% chance of being sexually or physically abused in her lifetime.” So runs a media campaign of the Canadian Women’s Foundation (www.canadianwomen.org). I am sure the campaign is well-intentioned and perhaps I miss the point, but I would argue that such campaigns can normalize abuse and make women even more fearful and disempowered. Media attention to violent acts like the Delhi rapes and the Boston marathon bombings not only increase fear and distrust towards strangers but can encourage the potentially violent by showing how effectively such actions stir public fear and what an enormous amount of attention they generate. As for the Canadian campaign, there’s also the problem of suggesting that one should be unhappy at the birth of a girl, as if son preference needs to be promoted. Fear-related messages only work when a solution is provided to overcome the risk being portrayed. Simply telling people that they and their daughters are at risk of abuse, and suggesting that abuse is normal, seems unlikely to create positive results. I would imagine that the type of campaigns that HealthBridge has supported in various Asian countries, which put forth positive images of masculinity and thus attempt to denormalize abuse, are more likely to change norms and encourage good behaviour than negative messaging. Given the good work the Canadian Women’s Foundation is doing to address violence against women, it’s a pity they chose an ad that would seem likely to have the opposite of their intended effect.