Interesting way to get your point across...
UNICEF **** Smurfs to Highlight Plight
By HELENA SPONGENBERG, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 11, 5:04 PM ET
In this photo of a poster provided by Unicef on Tuesday Oct. 11, 2005, the cartoon Smurfs and their village are seen being bombed by airplanes. The recent advertising campaign by Unicef, both in print and on television, is intended to teach schoolchildren about the horrors of war. The title in French at left bottom reads 'Don't let war deystroy the world of children'
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Smurfette is left for ****. Baby Smurf is left crying and orphaned as the Smurf's village is carpet bombed by warplanes — a **** scene and imagery not normally associated with the lovable blue-skinned cartoon characters.
These are the scenes being shown as part of a new UNICEF ad-campaign on Belgian television.
"It's working. We are getting a lot of reactions and people are logging on to our Web site," UNICEF Belgium spokesman Philippe Henon said Tuesday.
The Belgian office of the U.N. children's fund said it has decided to use the creations of late Belgian artist Peyo to shock a complacent public into backing its fund-raising efforts for ex-child soldiers in Africa.
The 20-second video commercial clip now being shown on Belgian TV aims to show that war can happen in the most innocent of places, Henon said.
"We get reactions from all over the place," said Henon. "People are shocked and want to know the reasons behind this cartoon image."
The appeal is meant to raise money for UNICEF projects in Burundi, Congo and ****, Henon said. However, due to its graphic and disturbing scenes, this cartoon is not for everyone. The advertisement is aimed at an adult audience and is only shown after 9 p.m. to avoid upsetting young Smurfs fans.
The video is peacefully introduced by birds, butterflies and happy Smurfs playing and singing their theme song when suddenly out of the sky, **** rain down onto their forest village, scattering Papa Smurf and the rest as their houses are set ablaze.
The **** **** Smurfette leaving Baby Smurf orphaned and crying at the edge of a crater in the last scene of the video and finishing of with the text "don't let war destroy the children's world."
It calls on viewers to donate.
UNICEF traditionally uses real life images of playing and laughing children but decided to change it for something that would shock people, Henon said.
"We wanted to have lasting effect of our campaign, because we felt that in comparison to previous campaigns, the public is not easily motivated to do things for humanitarian causes and certainly not when it involved Africa or children in war," he said.
Henon added that UNICEF would never cross the line and film real-life war scenes in its appeals.
The UNICEF campaign was launched Friday with the Smurf TV spot and will last until April.
"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."
The Smurf ad will be followed by similar ad in November to promote UNICEF's "let children live in peace" campaign.
French children's program Martine and the children's song "Au Clair de la Lune" will be presented with changed lyrics.
I'm sure there's somebody on this site who has a problem with this... or maybe just hates the U.N. and all that they represent? *waits and sees*
Anyway, that's what war is: loss of innocence. If you really want to not sugarcoat it, just sugarcoat it... then set the sugar on fire! :???: bad analogy? lemme try again...
I think this ad campaign serves its purpose well. Sad how we've become so desensitized to real suffering that they must resort to torturing characters from our childhood memories instead.
What I wanna know is how much does this ad spot resemble the 1980s version. The music, voices (if any), the animation... I believe the old cartoon was made especially in english by Hanna-Barbera, not just a dubbed version, but whatever.
:sad: And all those years they thought Gargamel and Azrael were gonna do them in. :sad: Surprise, surprise! This tha new millennium!
i thought it was funny.. i just knew a **** was going to hit baby smurf cryin... then it might have been sad... but all in all it was still humorous to me
..
morbid sense of humor i guess
In this photo of a poster provided by Unicef on Tuesday Oct. 11, 2005, the cartoon Smurfs and their village are seen being bombed by airplanes. The recent advertising campaign by Unicef, both in print and on television, is intended to teach schoolchildren about the horrors of war. The title in French at left bottom reads 'Don't let war deystroy the world of children'
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Smurfette is left for ****. Baby Smurf is left crying and orphaned as the Smurf's village is carpet bombed by warplanes — a **** scene and imagery not normally associated with the lovable blue-skinned cartoon characters.
These are the scenes being shown as part of a new UNICEF ad-campaign on Belgian television.
"It's working. We are getting a lot of reactions and people are logging on to our Web site," UNICEF Belgium spokesman Philippe Henon said Tuesday.
The Belgian office of the U.N. children's fund said it has decided to use the creations of late Belgian artist Peyo to shock a complacent public into backing its fund-raising efforts for ex-child soldiers in Africa.
The 20-second video commercial clip now being shown on Belgian TV aims to show that war can happen in the most innocent of places, Henon said.
"We get reactions from all over the place," said Henon. "People are shocked and want to know the reasons behind this cartoon image."
The appeal is meant to raise money for UNICEF projects in Burundi, Congo and ****, Henon said. However, due to its graphic and disturbing scenes, this cartoon is not for everyone. The advertisement is aimed at an adult audience and is only shown after 9 p.m. to avoid upsetting young Smurfs fans.
The video is peacefully introduced by birds, butterflies and happy Smurfs playing and singing their theme song when suddenly out of the sky, **** rain down onto their forest village, scattering Papa Smurf and the rest as their houses are set ablaze.
The **** **** Smurfette leaving Baby Smurf orphaned and crying at the edge of a crater in the last scene of the video and finishing of with the text "don't let war destroy the children's world."
It calls on viewers to donate.
UNICEF traditionally uses real life images of playing and laughing children but decided to change it for something that would shock people, Henon said.
"We wanted to have lasting effect of our campaign, because we felt that in comparison to previous campaigns, the public is not easily motivated to do things for humanitarian causes and certainly not when it involved Africa or children in war," he said.
Henon added that UNICEF would never cross the line and film real-life war scenes in its appeals.
The UNICEF campaign was launched Friday with the Smurf TV spot and will last until April.
"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."
The Smurf ad will be followed by similar ad in November to promote UNICEF's "let children live in peace" campaign.
French children's program Martine and the children's song "Au Clair de la Lune" will be presented with changed lyrics.
