This Valentine’s Day Allianz Ireland, Women’s Aid and Forsman and Bodenfors Dublin are encouraging men to stand up against gender-based violence.

The campaign capitalises on the fact that Valentine’s Day is a time when many set out to buy flowers for their loved ones. 

In a powerful one-day activation called ‘The Dead Flower Shop’, passersby will see that all the flowers in the shop are dead. These dead flowers representing the 274 women killed in violent circumstances in Ireland. 

Allianz and Women’s Aid are using Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to spotlight the issue of gender-based violence to men. The growing number of women being killed in Ireland is often seen as a women's issue but men have a vital role to play. The activation is designed to encourage men to face the issue of gender-based violence and acknowledge the important role that they have to play.

The Dead Flower Shop is a one-day exhibition located in Dublin, with the premises for the campaign activation donated by Irish Life.

The shop looks like any other flower shop but inside visitors are met by an exhibition of dead flowers. Each bouquet is meticulously arranged to represent and memorialise an individual woman who died at the hands of her partner.

At the centre of the exhibition is a large bouquet of roses, with a single dead flower representing each of the 274 women killed in Ireland since 1996.

While men look to buy flowers for their partners, the activation remembers the women who were killed by their partners.

The confronting exhibit subverts expectations of Valentine’s Day to bring to life the need for urgent conversation about gender-based violence. The shop aims to bring men in and aware of the vital role they must play in ending it.

“Our goal is not just to highlight the statistics but to humanize the issue and make it impossible to ignore. Through this work with Allianz and Women’s Aid, we hope to shift perspectives and encourage men to be part of the solution, ” says Damian Hanley, Executive Creative Director at Forsman & Bodenfors Dublin.

As well as raising awareness the campaign aims to provide men with a tangible next step in the form of ‘The Ally Action List’. A set of practical steps men can take to combat gender inequality and gender-based violence, can be found here.