Salvation Army Uses 'The Dress' For Powerful Domestic Violence PSA Featuring Battered Woman

(CBS SF) -- "The Dress" that stirred up an Internet storm last week is back again, but this time as fodder for a powerful anti-violence campaign.

On Friday morning, the South African Salvation Army tweeted "Why is so hard to see black and blue?" on an image of a badly bruised woman with a black eye wearing the infamous dress in white and gold.

"The only illusion is if you think it was her choice," the ad says. "One in 6 women are victims of abuse. Stop abuse against women."

The dress drama started after a young Scottish woman asked her friends to help her figure out the color of a dress last week. The seemingly simple question exploded into an Internet debate over how we perceive colors. But now, it's morphed into something more meaningful.

The Salvation Army hired the Ireland/Davenport agency in Johannesburg to design the ad to showcase the nonprofit's work with abused and trafficked women and children. The ad was placed in the Cape Times Newspaper on Friday morning, a spokeswoman for the Salvation Army told the Washington Post.

The reaction on Twitter has largely been positive so far. Many praised the ad as "brilliant" and an effective use of social media.

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In:
• Salvation Army
• Domestic Violence
• Twitter