Amnesty ad compares arms trade to tsunami disasters

(Cross-posted at Osocio)


Oh, dear. Remember this fiasco?

Created by DDB Brazil for WWF Brazil, it ignited a firestorm of protest, which WWF's international office first disavowed, then admitted may have been the approved regionally. On this year's September 11th anniversary, Buzzfeed's Copyranter named it #1 in his list of "The Five Worst 9/11 Exploitation Ads".

You could say that it simply tells an inconvenient truth about inconsistent cultural attitudes towards tragedy and death. But that point would be made at the expense of causing further hurt to the families of the World Trade Centre attack, as well as to those deeply affected by it.

Now, strangely, the 2005 tsunami tragedy that is being exploited to make a point about war and the arms trade:

The ad is by TBWA, Paris, for Amnesty International.


This brings the saga of over-produced, tragedy-exploiting ads full circle: "an epic and tragic natural disaster killed more people than an infamous terrorist act, but the arms trade is even worse."

(Admittedly, it could also be a reference to the more recent Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.)

Once again, creatives go for maximum impact to make one message of human loss at the cost of trivializing another. This kind of trade-off is a devil's bargain, in my opinion. It's all bad. You don't need to get into a comparison of which is worse. From my perspective this looks like lazy strategy and the elaborate (yet derivative) execution is blatant award-bait.

And I say this as a member of Amnesty. You can do better than this. You often do.


Tip via Ads of the World

Dutch model goes green for WWF. Literally.

"Nature. That's you."

Marc shared this lovely video, for WNF (Dutch World Wildlife Fund) on Osocio.

The model is the Netherlands' own Doutzen Kroes, a supermodel/actress who is one of the Victoria's Secret Angels. Marc added that the campaign, which is actually quite tasteful (even if it reminded me a little too much of "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" from Creepshow) generated tons of advance buzz because it was reported that Ms. Kroes did it in the nude.

With all the obsession these days about clear-cutting the bodily undergrowth, I suppose some of them might have been disappointed.

"Oh no! Not THERE!"

The ad is part of Dutch WWF's 50th anniversary campaign.

Coke's new green billboard is covered with fukien tea plants

No, that is not a typo. Coca-Cola Philippines has teamed up with WWF to build an innovative outdoor ad:

"The 60 x 60 ft. plant billboard, located along Northbound EDSA-Forbes, utilizes a thriving species of Fukien tea plant, which absorbs air pollutants. According to botanist Anthony Gao, each plant can absorb up to 13 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year, on the average. 'This billboard helps alleviate air pollution within its proximate areas as it can absorb a total of 46,800 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, on estimate.' Gao says.

Recyclable materials were used for the overall make-up of the billboard. 3,600 pots were used, recycling old bottles of various Coca-Cola products. These bottles were filled with a potting mixture made up of a combination of industrial by-products and organic fertilizers—a formulation that is stable and light-weight . These bottles were also designed to hold the plants securely and to allow the plants to grow sideways. Additional holes were made for proper drainage and for holding the drip lines in place.

A drip irrigation system, also known as trickle irrigation or micro-irrigation, was especially installed for efficient water distribution. This irrigation method saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing and emitters. The system is operated on a schedule to distribute water with nutrients to the plants. It provides the plants with what they need when they need it.

With all the eco-friendly mechanism it employs and the relevant advocacy it stands for, this innovative advertisement is a salient reminder for Filipinos to take an active hand in protecting and saving the environment."

Perhaps Coke could do more for the atmosphere by not trucking megalitres of packaged liquid all over the place, but that's just me. It's still a cute PR stunt.

Thanks to AdFreak for the link.

WWFTF?

I'm sure you've seen it by now. The DDB Brazil ad that got the WWF in trouble, even though they rejected it:



Headline: "The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it."

According to Adfreak, WWF has said the ad was "never authorized or approved by any WWF person on the planet", DDB has apologized (in Portuguese), and the creative team has been terminated.

We all make bad creative judgements once in a while, especially with the need to stand out among media overload, but these missteps are usually corrected in the boardroom (or at last resort) by someone on the client end.

This ad, however, was submitted to the One Show — and even won an "award of merit". (Don't look for it now, though. It's gone.)

So the the work of a creative team in one corner of the world ends up making the whole industry look bad, just because they thought their concept was too good to go into exile in the spec portfolio. Thanks, guys. Just when we were starting to be hated a little less than lawyers.