The campaign, launched by the state government towards the end of last year, includes an ad that depicts a father who is caring towards his son but abusive towards his female partner in front of his child.

The ad carries the message ‘there’s nothing good about dads who abuse women.’

Women’s Health and Wellbeing Barwon South West chief executive officer Emily Lee-Ack said around 50 per cent of family violence incidents were witnessed by children.

“It is really significant to start to think about what your behaviour in the home might mean in terms of its impact on your children,” she said.

Another ad depicts a father instructing his son to kick a football at his mum, and carries the tag line ‘family violence has no good days’.

Ms Lee-Ack described the ads as ‘incredibly hard hitting’.

“It’s a very confronting set of images for people because it draws into really sharp contrast what people might understand a family to be like versus the reality of what that family is actually like,” she said.

“This is not just about what happens between a couple, this is also about the impact that this has much more broadly and the ripple effect that that has into whole families.”

Ms Lee-Ack said the ads encourage people to think critically about what they might be seeing in their world, such as people close to them experiencing violence.

She said the ad depicting someone who would be perceived as a “good father” was very effective.

“It actually asks you to think into what excuses you might be making for someone on the basis that you perceive them to be a good father, and how does that impact on your inclination to believe that there’s violence occurring in that home,” Ms Lee-Ack said.

“They talk to people on a number of levels, which is very important.”

Ms Lee-Ack said under Victorian law exposing children to domestic violence within the home was a form of violence itself.

She said people were required to create a home environment that prevented children witnessing violence.