Wednesday, October 12, 2005

UNICEF ad campaign -Bomb Papa Smurf

The long-suffering son put me on to this one. UNICEF had decided, undoubtedly correctly, that we all have compassion fatigue and that we no longer respond appropriately to images of war-decimated villages and people. So, to raise money for a rehabilitation program for ex-child soldiers in Burundi, they designed an ad campaign where a Smurf village is destroyed by warplanes and bombs. Yes, the happy little Smurfs are dancing around. But the bad guy... what's his name? Gilgamesh? Gollum? Gargamel, that's it! He must have gotten bombs, because all of a sudden there are war planes, and missiles, and fire.

I haven't seen the film; it's showing in Belgium and Japan, apparently. The word is, though, that it ends with a Baby Smurf, burned and injured, sobbing while she looks at the dead bodies of all her Smurf family and friends. If you speak Flemish, you can watch the video here: Bombed Smurfs. So, they think that we won't respond to images of children and that we will respond to images of sad, blue Smurfs? How pathetic will it be if it turns out they're right? For the record, I think they've trivialized both war AND us. Surely there were other ways to help people understand that war destroys children's lives. Those poor, ex-child soldiers surely deserved better at UNICEF's hands.

And now that you have the Smurf song running endlessly in your head, you probably want to bomb MY house! Sorry about that.

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