A new Super Bowl ad is already stirring up a lot of discussion.
The ad deals with the reality of domestic violence and is the first of its kind to ever air during the biggest day in sports.
The chilling commercial, based on a real 9-1-1 call, has a woman calling in an emergency, but pretending to order a pizza because she cannot openly speak about what's happening to her.
The video is part of the No More Campaign, which seeks to raise public awareness about domestic violence, but also encourages those who witness such violence to report it.
"No More seeks to break social stigma, normalize the conversation around domestic violence and sexual assault, and increase resources to address these urgent issues," says the No More website. "No More is aligned with hundreds of organizations working at the local, state and national levels on prevention, advocacy, and services for survivors."
Last year, video surfaced of the NFL's Ray Rice, a football player for the Baltimore Ravens, assaulting his wife, knocking her out and dragging her out of an elevator. Many criticized the NFL for its handling of the incident: Rice wasn't fired until after the video went public, and the NFL reinstated him last month.
The understated ad shows no video of domestic violence, but there are hints of it as a camera pans through a house with holes smashed in the walls and photos and books thrown on the floor. No More based the call in the ad on several real 9-1-1 calls, where women hid the true intent of their calls as they asked for help.
The ad ends with the statement: "When it's hard to talk, it's up to us to listen." As of today, it already has nearly 2 million views on YouTube.
Every year, more than 1 million women are physically assaulted by their domestic partner and nearly one-third of women homicide victims die at the hands of their partners. In nearly 80 percent of those homicide cases, the woman saw physical abuse at the hand of her partner before the murder.
However, most disturbing is that only one-fifth of women homicide victims killed by their partners ever report abuse.
Some may find it ironic that this ad airs during an event sponsored by the NFL, considering the organization has already set an example with Rice that it doesn't take domestic violence seriously enough to ban a player from their league.
