Gender-based violence in the period of the coronavirus pandemic in the G-20 countries: Social media advertising campaigns

Abstract

The pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 showed an increase in cases of gender violence during home confinement and social isolation. This article studies the publicity campaigns promoted in the G-20 countries during the pandemic period. Social media became a space for interaction to promote cyberfeminist actions called hashtivism and make visible this social problem considered ‘the other pandemic’. The analysis focuses on the coding strategies of the advertising message and its link to the social ecosystem. The study shows that the pandemic became the creative axis for generation of informative campaigns with new symbolic codes to help the victims of gender violence.