The story, as I understand it.
* DDB Brazil pitched an ad campaign to the World Wildlife Fund.
* The World Wildlife Fund rejected the campaign.
* DDB Brazil submitted the rejected piece to an advertising competition called The One Show, which dutifully gave it a “Merit Award” for Public Service ads.
The text in the upper right corner of the ad reads:
THE TSUNAMI KILLED 100 TIMES MORE PEOPLE THAN 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it. www.wwf.org
While most attention, understandably, is being paid to condemnations of “bad taste,” my own objection is more prosaic:
The intent of this campaign is to motivate people to respect and preserve our planet.
The motivation? Fear. Because “the planet is brutally powerful.”
But hey, it won a Merit Award.
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Yes, well – umm, I see no artistic merit in this – let alone anything else to merit recieving a merit award – apart from the artwork itself.
But – and correct me if I’m wrong – we’re supposed to fear nature because of the Tsunami – which is a mother nature thing…
What Has That Got To Do With the WWF?
The World WILDLIFE Fund? Animals! Not natural events?!
I’m sorry – maybe I’m too thick to understand and DDB Brazil are the geniuses here?
I can think of a few things this ad “merits”…and awards certainly aren’t in the list!
Sometimes when you see something that is ‘disturbing’ you might interprete it as being ‘profound.’
The concept of ‘brainstorming’ for a great advertising campaign may bring forth ‘disturbing’ images and most of them are discarded in favor of ideas that are more focused on addressing the client’s objective.
Do you remember the book by Jerry Dela Famina (sp?) that revealed the inner workings of big time advertising agencies?
In a brainstorming session to come up with a slogan that would ‘save’ the Panasonic account…what ended up as the title of his book was blurted out: Hey I’ve got it….”From those wonderful people who gave you Pearl Harbor.”
Disturbing or profound?
The client was right to reject it and good for them. The agency, being self absorbed ego driven idiots submitted it to a committee of other self absorbed ego driven idiots. The resulting award shouldn’t surprise anyone. However, I think the list of everyone who voted in favor of giving an award to this campaign should be posted publicly so that business owners everywhere will know who to NEVER hire for their advertising.
Days before 9/11, we were running a “coffee cart comes to your office” promo where a superhero flew to your office with the brew and snacks. The sound effects were a roaring jet and wind, breaking glass, people screaming and cheering. We pulled it immediately after the attack. Duh. Who knew we should have submitted it for an award? 🙂
Oh my God, I can’t believe they even pitched this idea.
Personally, I think it makes a great point. I can see how it can be offensive to americans and rather insensitive though. was the competition hosted outside the US?
Sooo, what are they trying to say? “Only YOU can prevent tsunamis”? Aside from the bad taste aspect, it’s pointless! At least they could try and come up with something that’s preventable through human action. Global warming…deforestation…the proliferation of bad advertising..the list goes on and on.
that doesn’t make any sense….now, if they’d used Pandas instead of Tsunamis it would’ve made sense.
I think it’s deep rather than bad taste . Oblique, but deep . It’s Art .
Asks the question “what IS big enough to pay attention to” and continue to focus upon .
20 to 50 911 terrorists changed our US civil rights availability , and govt’s worldwide spent billions immediately . Task forces still study and search for those sources . News every day . Status reports . Involvement/engagement (which is the terrorist emotional game plan, quality of life issue) .
The weather … gives and takes so much more than any war . But weather catastrophe results are cleaned up and the condition of the environment is then suddenly ignorable . Slowly quality of life lessens and no one has it in the news as immediate and real with decision making today , now , affecting tomorrows .
A spur to THINK, which both sides of this discussion certainly do provoke more of as well .
That’s deep, to me . It’s Art .
I see nothing at all in that pic about the planet being brutal so that we should respect it. All I see is a company stupid enough to reopen or rub salt in still-open wounds and a reminder that humans are far more brutal than the planet. It is natural and what we do to one another – for whatever reason – is calculated.
I can agree that it’s art–and that it’s still incredibly stupid advertising. The analogy is asinine. 9/11 was not a man-made disaster–it was an act of war that still troubles people deeply. You don’t win friends by picking open a scab on their knee and saying, “See, it could have been a lot worse–you could have lost the limb to gangrene!” As for it being art, well, the image is disturbing and provocative, so…nuff said.
It’s just wrong on so very many levels, even factual. (though the ‘art’ comments have some accuracy) September 11, 2001; more people died ON THE WHOLE PLANET than died in a couple square blocks of New York City. Some perhaps even more tragically and pointlessly.
Too bad. We’re accustomed to much better work from our local DDB office.
Aren’t we meant to embrace nature????