"It's a relief to do things that actually have some redeeming social value," says McCagg. And it wasn't too hard for them to switch gears, since the strategy behind creating a public service ad isn't much different from that for pushing a product. "You're still selling something," says Garrett. Adds McCagg, "You have to get into the mind-set of whoever's going to be reading the ad and try to get them to act on something."

Working under Mayor Rudy Giuliani's Commission to Combat Family Violence (created in 1994 just after Nicole Brown Simpson's murder), Garrett and McCagg designed two major public education campaigns for New York's subway system; one ran in the fall of 1999, the other last year. The goal was to sell an idea and an impulse item. The idea: Domestic violence is a real problem for many women. The impulse item: A 24-hour hot line set up by the mayor's commission for victims of domestic violence.

Garret and McCagg were particularly thrilled about the subway as a canvas for their work. "You can actually do what's called a 'brand train,'" explains Garrett. "It's when you purchase one whole side of the train car. You get the majority of the city being forced to stare at the ads. It's incredibly effective." Both thought it would be the perfect way to deal with the thorny issue of domestic violence. "It isn't something that people want to confront. But when the ad takes up the whole train, it's something they can't avoid," says McCagg.

I found myself in one such "brand" car, unable to avoid the ad during my morning commute one day. Dozens of young female faces smiled down at me from the top panel. High school portraits, one after the other, ran down the subway car, beaming that look of the enlightened yet innocent, hopeful yet tentative, empowered yet girly.

Below each picture, in italics, were yearbook-style superlatives -- but not the kind you'd expect. Instead of "Best Dressed" or "Most Likely to Succeed," they were "Most Likely to Be Stalked," "Most Likely to Be Forced Into Sex," "Most Stitches Found on Forehead," "Most Bruises," "Most Ashamed of Her Abuse," "Most Excuses for a Black Eye," "Most 911 Calls."

Beneath the pictures were foreboding black and red posters with the slogans "For many high school and college girls, the hardest thing to learn is how to leave an abusive relationship" and "You don't have to be married to be a victim of domestic violence."

The yearbook motif was evocative of Garrett and McCagg's 1999 domestic violence campaign, which featured a similar barrage of women's faces or upper bodies along the top panel of an entire car. In this campaign, the women's faces were textured by bruises, cuts and scars. Some of the faces had more wrinkles; some were wider, some darker; but they all looked like they'd been through hell. Below the pictures were a time ticker -- 12:01:12, 12:01:24, 12:01:36, etc. -- and the slogan "Every 12 seconds, another woman is beaten by her husband or boyfriend." It was a powerful, eye-catching campaign that made headlines and drove up hot-line calls by 14 percent.

The pictures definitely were provocative. They said women get beaten, every minute, every day, and they're in pain. But the pictures also seemed to border on sexualizing violence. The women were in tank tops or button-down shirts, leaning up against a wall, sweating or bleeding. And there was something else: Some expressed anguish, others sorrow or fear. One held her head in her hands. None seemed angry. These women looked defeated, exhausted, violated. They were victims with a capital V.

Order "Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood" from the editors of Mothers Who Think.