overall opinion?

[fittz2002]

I am a student studying, for my sins, Media. Im researching Fathers 4 Justice and their 'rise to fame'. From what I can gather, the general concensus is that their campaign has been successful. Im interested in why,,, can anyone help?

[undercovers]

becasue media students and bob geldof are always banging on about them

[stoo_pid]

By successful do you mean they've got the media interested in their stunts or they've managed to change laws?

[iwantthatone]

They've managed to get the publicity they need to get people to take notice of them.  The stunts such as the Batman one a few weeks ago means that people can't ignore their campaign, and by getting themselves media attention will be probably attracting more fathers to join,who feel similarly about their rights.  This I guess is strengthening their campaign, and making it that little bit more likely for them to actually get laws changed.

[becks]

Define successful - successful in the fact that they have raised the profile of their group and the laws, but unsuccessful in the fact that the laws haven't actually changed. I would also suggest that they haven't been overly successful in getting the public on their side, some people like them, to others they're an inconvenience - try asking the people when spiderman was on the bridge and they had to be diverted across london as they closed the road. The negative media coverage about the batman guy also didn't help and some have said they've raised issues about security (buckingham palace) rather than their cause. I however like them, they cause maximum impact with their disruption, don't hurt anybody and make the authorities look like idiots - what more can you ask from a demonstration.

[fittz2002]

Hi, I mean successful as in the amount of articles relating to this topic has increased 700% in the last four years. This is a worldwide issue, with F4J opening campaign 'centres' in Canada, Australia. It is such a great issue, why is nobody listening ?... thats my point.

As for 'banging on about it', do you have a kid that you cant see...?

[kags]

Did you watch the documentary about them this week?One of them said he had resolved the issues over access to his kids with his ex partner, but he now spends so much time on the F4J campaign, he doesn't get to spend much time with his kids. So it depends how you define successful really. They have certainly got themselves a lot of publicity, but I am not sure if it has shown their cause in a good light. Most people, rightly or wrongly, still have faith in the legal system, and are suspicious of those who take extreme measures.

[Peter Pedant]

why is their campaign perceived as successful.

It is short and zippy - men go around dressed stupidly and are telegenic - it makes a good viddie-bite

It is focussed

it is easily summed up - Men should see their kids and the contrary statement Men should not see their kids is not intuitive and immediately raises the q why not?

They dont break the law (ha!) - but not in a sense of oh golly that's dangerous!

 

the perceived ill is easily solved - a minister changes a regulation on access to kids.

Their campaign has not been whiney

They have had a clear spokeman and a clear message

erm I have run out of reasons

[maxi29]

They have generated a lot of publicity but quite a lot of that has been negative. Their alleged aim, lack of access to children, has been examined in more detail and the statistics tell a different story: in most cases, divorced parents have come to an amicable arrangement about child access; in the cases where the couples haven't, in 90% of the cases, the woman says they want the men to have <b>more</b> access, not less. In fact, men are denied access in a very, very small number of cases - and mostly because the fathers have been violent. <p>There are some cases where the mothers have been vindictive and spiteful and have prevented access, but these are, thankfully, very few. <p> I wouldn't known any of that if the FFJ hadn't started their campaign. As there's not much of a problem, I can't imagine that there's much incentive to change. Consequently, it strikes me as a spectacularly misjudged campaign.