Unicef Bombs Smurfs
 

Quote:

"We see so many images that we don't really react anymore," said Julie Lamoureux, account director at Publicis, an advertising agency that drew up the campaign for UNICEF Belgium. "In 35 seconds we wanted to show adults how awful war is by reaching them within their memories of childhood."

Well, this to me is a bit over the top. It gets the message to the younger generation and also those that had grown up on Smurfs. It started a discussion here, and at least gained some news column inches.

I only have a passing awareness of Smurfs, but I have a visceral reaction that would be similar to seeing real children in this situation. It is probably true that many of us are in compassion overload simply trying to help in the many natural calamities that have occured in the last year. Perhaps "shock" advertising will work in drawing attention to child victims of unnatural circumstances, but I'm not convinced that this was a wise decision.

I'm having a hard time taking this seriously -- I get the message intended but....

Oh and the fact that Smurfette had baby-- I'm not sure that the little trollop was married :) I don't think this will sit well with some organizations...

:rolleyes:

Call me jaded but I just can't see this being effective. It's getting some attention, but really, I don't think it's all that shocking. Maybe that's a sad commentary on what it takes to shock me, or sad commentary on our culture that seeing live children suffer the ravages of war is not enough to get our attention, but mostly I think it's just a weird publicity stunt, albeit for a good cause.

A: "People just aren't paying attention to our fundraising efforts. We need a way to convey the horror of child soldiers to the general public."

B: "Did you say child soldiers?"

A: "Yes. That's what this fundraising is about, remember?"

B: "And children like Smurfs, right?"

A: "Riiiiight..."

B: "So if we show the public images of Smurfs being bombed, maybe they will imagine that children are being bombed!"

A: "Uh, maybe. Don't you think that it would be easier to show images of children being bombed?"

B: "No, silly: children don't have children."

A: *sigh*

B: "Smurfs it is!"

I think I'd get a kick out of watching a video where people bombed the smurfs. It just seems so far out there that it's laughable.

Has anyone ever watched the cartoon series of the smurfs? You'd wanna bomb 'em after sitting thru it.

This from a country whose arms factories have supplied both sides in a conflict with weapons? (not that theres anything wrong with it, but you'd think the belgians would realize that war has its benefits. freedom from an opressive regme, like the nazis for instance comes to mind)


europe just seems so wacky to me. I gotta go over there and figure out if its me, or them. :(

I find that picture to be unintentionally comical. Good job UNICEF.

This is from UNICEF not from the Belgian government, it's just being screened on Belgian television.

Wow what scares me more is the fact now that Smurfette is dead, all the smurfs have no choice.. they cannot be straight anymore, either way no new smurfs :|

Ziadel:

it's us probably

See there's this cynicism going on, we've seen most of it, we've heard most of it, so hell, we'll just sell the stuff we have to who wants it and that'll be that.

In fact, if we had the technology, we'd sell em clone warriors too, that way, the rivalling sides only have to point which way to shoot, provided they have the money for our goods.

Cuz we're greedy like that

I knew things would go to hell for the Smurfs once Gargamel obtained yellow cake uranium.

Mmmmm....yellow cake.

/going to hell

This is better:

Se7en Smurfs

This is rather shocking to me, and I do hope Gargamel is brought up on charges as he should be!

Those funny white hats look a bit like turbans to me.

Time to issue a fatwa against UNICEF.

Well, when you're the only female in a village full of guys, you can afford to keep your options open...

Can anyone find a link to the actual video itself?

That was my first thought.
images of real children suffering is ineffectual. Therefore, images of fantastical cartoon characters being ravaged will illicit sympathy. I'm sorry, that's just pathetic.

Oh...and by the way...I recall those little blue-balled beasts from the 80's. Didn't like 'em then, don't like 'em now. So overall...I'd say that the campaign is a dismal failure. You're fired! Next!

Same here, if they created a game where you could bomb them yourself, I'd play.

To a generation raised playing violent video games this campaign will seem comical. I think something like Johnson's "Peace Little Girl (Daisy)" commercial done in 1964 is more effective and even that would probably seem mild today.

Peace Little Girl (Daisy) (Direct link to the video)
Livingroom Candidate (Link to the website, 2nd from top left)

Smurf you. You smurfin' UNICEF smurfs. You will smurf the day that you decided to smurf the Smurfs.

I dunno, is it pathetic because that's what they're doing or pathetic because that's what it takes to get through to people?

I mean, how many of you gave to Sally Struthers when she was surrounded by true human suffering. Hate to say it bu tmost people just block out bad news about Africa as too depressing. Now bomb our childhood memories... I think it might work.

Likely, they were not allowed to show images of what land-mine victims or wounded child soldiers actualy look like on TV.

iccky: The footage of real children suffering is much harder on me than a bunch of cartoons. The problem with charities is that there are far too many of them, and they all want some of your money or time. The constant badgering doesn't affect the sympathy I feel for people who are suffering, but it does severely decrease my desire to respond to a particular charity when there have been a dozen who've already solicited me that week.

I think it's a head-turner for sure.

It's a really strong image. Scary, but for a good cause.

On a lighter note - I'm also wondering if there's a Smurfs Tsunami, Smurfs Hurricane and a Smurfs Earthquake. Hmm. Not to dwell overmuch on it but Smurf Sierra Leone and Smurf Rwanda would be real nasty.

Don't think it would work for road safety.... Seeing smurfs flying out of a smurf car would probably just just be funny.

I met someone at work with an ID tag “Deberrie Smerfette”, which appeared to me to be pronounced “De berry Smurfett”. She told me that it was actually pronounced as if it was spelled “DeBeer Smurfae”, but most people pronounced as I had, and she was used to it. After I got to know her a bit I asked if she was too young to have heard of the “smurfs”, or if it had ever caused her grief.
She said it was MUCH worse than I could imagine.
She had married into the name. Her maiden name was “Blue.”

De Berry Blue Smurfett.

Oh my.

The first time i saw the smurfs was at a discussion forum. WE were talking about propaganda, and the best way to get a given (Political) idea out to kids.
The speaker presented a french cartoon about a german 'folk' story called 'johan and the quest of the magical flute'. You guessed it, it was all about the smurfs. For those of you who might not know it, the magic flute is a masonic parable. (Same thing goes for the opera of the same name.)
I don't know how they made the leap to prime time, but i do know the magic flute thing preceded them by almost 10 years.

I don't think UNICEF wants your money or your time here. I think they want to raise awareness about the problem (there's no "ask" in the ad, no call for you to give time or money or even contact a representative).

Maybe it isn't as effective for you, though studies show that ads people claim to hate aren't necessarily ineffective (negative political ads, for instance, are universaly reviled but actually drive up turnout). But I would be willing to guess that the grand majority of people will change the channel the second a real landmine victim comes on the screen (assuming such an ad could make it on the air). Even if they watched it, they'd probablly file it away with all of the other Awful Things In The World and block it or forget about it. The smurfs ad is different, and thus gets around these developed defense mechanisms and gets people's attention (it certainly got ours). Like it or not, it's a successful ad.

This is the coolest video ever, although, i dont think it will strike a nerve with anyone but the smurf fan club. I think it is ridiculous to think that smurfs will make people want to help. They could use real bombing footage i have seem some of that on a private tape from Iraq and that is scary enough to make anyone give the shirt off their back.