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Gone the times where NGOs from the North used and overused images of starving African children to make their case before potential supporters. Above are the key images from the 2 ads discussed in a recent article by New York Time Jane Levere titled “Antihunger Campaign Forgoes Images of Starving Children” published Nov 14th 2011,
I see an attempt to clean up the humanitarian ad business. I am sure readers familiar with the late night public announcements were stunned by the minimal imagery next to the article. The ads are part of a campaign to seek donation towards addressing acute malnutrition in poor part of the world by Action Against Hunger a nonprofit group that fights malnutrition.
As you will see in the article there is a connection between Action Against Hunger and Vodka. Yes Vodka! I know many of you will question the relationship between the two. To me it is the least of my concerns. We will never know how and where donors out there acquired their fortune before donating part of it to worthy causes. I suggest we focus on the images for now.
Despite all the critics from all the "expert" out there with regard to the reference to Pizza as "bad food" and Vodka seen as "bad drink" I believe this is a major step towards the right direction and Action Against Hunger must be commended for this.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
[T]he campaign consists of two print ads that solicit donations for the efforts of the United States operation of Action Against Hunger to combat acute childhood malnutrition. Ads are running in December issues of five magazines in space donated by Ultimat Vodka, a brand of Patron Spirits International.
Instead of employing photographs of starving children — as many organizations in the field often do — the ads take a different tack. One shows a line of seven simple paper dolls; the doll in the middle is a stick figure compared with the other six. Copy in this ad says, “3.5 million children die each year from acute malnutrition. Take action. Save a child. ActionAgainstHunger.org.”
The second ad shows an open pizza box with a miniature pizza inside. The copy asks, “Hungry? Imagine living on only a tiny fraction of what you eat each day. Every year, 3.5 million children try — and don’t survive. You can help prevent this.” The ad then urges readers to visit Action Against Hunger’s Web site or text a $10 donation to it.
Both ads contain a small logo of Ultimat Vodka, calling it a “proud sponsor.” The ads will run in the December issues of Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and Saveur; the Dec. 15 issue of Wine Enthusiast; and the Dec. 18 issue of The New York Times Magazine.
The ad space, worth an estimated $400,000, was donated by the liquor company to Action Against Hunger. Patron Spirits International also donated similar magazine space to Action Against Hunger in late 2010; public service ads appearing then were created internally by the aid group.
Founded in Paris some 30 years ago, Action Against Hunger today has five offices in Europe and North America that operate programs in more than 40 countries dealing with nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene and other issues.
According to data compiled by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, of the 925 million people worldwide who are considered undernourished, there are 19 million children affected by the most deadly form of hunger, severe acute malnutrition.
The Lancet, the British medical journal, says 3.5 million children under 5 die from hunger-related causes worldwide annually. It is this last group the new public service ads aim to help.
Geoffrey M. Glick, director of external relations for the New York-based United States Action Against Hunger, said the new ads deliberately did not feature photographs of starving children because the aid group is “trying to communicate in a more positive, upbeat way, focus more on the solution and less on an actual distancing image of a child with an illness so removed from our world.”
“We wanted the concept to stop people as they flip through the magazine, quickly communicate and pull them in,” said Bruce Henderson, chief creative officer of G2 USA, part of the WPP Group.
He called the paper doll imagery “universal” and easily understood, while he said the agency had tried to create a “little surprise, or cognitive dissonance” with the pizza box concept.
“Most of us in the U.S. expect a daily abundance of food. The image of the small pizza where you expected a large one leaves you with a feeling of discomfort or hunger,” Mr. Henderson said.
He said G2 also chose not to use photos of famished children because viewers might be suffering from what he called “compassion fatigue.”
“As we move through the magazine, it becomes easier to skip over the ads,” Mr. Henderson said. “We wanted to create something people had perhaps not seen before.”
Matt Carroll, chief marketing officer of Patron Spirits International, said the aim of the public service ads was to “build awareness” for Action Against Hunger, not for the vodka brand. “We hope people will have a positive outlook if they associate Ultimat Vodka with Action Against Hunger, but that’s not our main goal,” he said.
