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Greenpeace: Global warming
Global warming will affect us all. Greenpeace
Advertising Agency: TBWA\PHS, Helsinki, Finland
Account Executive: Kirsi Parni
Art Directors: Minna Lavola, Mikko Torvinen
Illustrator: Kati Kilponen
Photographers: Antti Viitala, Asko Roine
Copywriters: Erkko Mannila, Tommy Makinen
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wtf is this about
It will affect white people too.
Seems to be the only way some people understand human suffering (ie 9/11)
I'd like to think that you are incorrect as that would be a sorry state of affairs, but I suspect you may be right.
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It's only an ad.
in that case i would be more understanding for the child to be behind a bush hut or something,
at first i thought it was a baby moses.
I guessing it's meant to freak out snow bound Scandanavians.
>>>> That's not an ad. THIS is an ad.
I like the Thought.
Nice thought.
What the fuck IS this all about?
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It's only an ad.
Just a put-yourself-in-their-shoes concept.
Message it wants to convey is awake before its too late.
not bad..
* it's not how good you are. it's how good you want it to be *
Very powerful image.
it's nice! but extremely "first idea"...
but still very powerful and well-executed
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New Blog @ http://musback.blogspot.com
first is best, it comes from your heart and mostly is no marketing brainfuck.
this idea is extremly powerful.
yes first is the best ...this one wasn't the first
I think it´s the most racist ad ever. While global warming is affecting milions of people outside the white coutries, it´s ok, nothing to worry about. But when it comes to their beautiful and refreshing places, it´s time to think about a change? Completly awful.
Living in a third world country, I'm inclined to agree with your statement...why is the shock factor "stressed" all the more when a Caucasian child is used...or are we so used to seeing those images from the Ethiopian famine of '84/'85 that we no longer bat an eye?
It's really sad, but as said above, you're perfectly right with your last sentence. That's what this ad is about, I think.
But IS that actually what this ad is saying? I do feel a bit of that 'surely not' feeling here.
I hope it isn't anyway, cos its damn shame if it is.
;-(
THE WORLD IS CHANGING!!! NO MORE GREENPEACE ADS!!!
No more stupid fucking comments from you thanks.
Then don't read them, you don't deserve them, they're for people, not for you, aussie POS!!!
Are you calling me a point of sale?
Ha ha, you're pretty funny for a moron.
Was that a joke? Does aussies have humour?
I'm not getting into this racial slurring dude, it's not personal, I'm just prejudice against fuckheads.
ha, a typical seppo.
By the way, dumb aussie, I'm not a "seppo", I'm Latin American, not born in the US, thanks.
i dont care where your from, your an ass wipe. Mate!
I'm not sure why people have turned this into a racial issue. The shock factor here is that it's a child, not that she's white.
They had to pick a kid. They picked a white one.
If they had chosen a black kid, then everyone would be ok with this ad?
were u born yesterday? or ur just being hopeful?
regards_______________________
http://shut.elmota.com
This is strong! I like it very much. Straight to the point.
the visual's not that clear. i thought it was a sad cupid
yup^
Green Peace should promote solutions, or adleast a sell that directs people to positive information.
................
Jack' Attack
the subtext is terrible. their lifes are not worthy of help, but WAIT! It could happen to US! Now we are in the mood of really helping!
.................that's not the point they are talking to white people who are used to watch these kind of images with a black child, they are thinking : "oh my god that's horrible" but still they don't feel concerned...
People are really making an issue out of nothing here. There's nothing in this ad that implies 'it could happen to white people too, so NOW let's do something about it.' There has been a huge movement all over the world to stop global warming for some time now. Let's not turn this into an east vs west battle just for the hell of it.
They had to choose a kid, didn't they? They chose a white one. What should they have done?
Do they have to choose a middle eastern kid, or a black kid, or a chinese kid, or else it's racist? Give me a break.
come on, that's exactly the point of this ad, evrything here, is about the fact this kid is white
There's nothing here that remotely implies that, aside from this girl being white. The point is that it's a young girl, and look at the expression on her face. It's tugging at our heart strings, pointing out that it's not just 'us' or 'me' that it's going to happen to - it's our children, and our children's children. The kid just happens to be white.
So why are they using the king of image we have seen a thousand times during ethiopan or the somalian famine...I don't say you're wrong I just say the fact he is white counts too
good point. I wasn't looking at it as being a 'white' version of the famine pictures we see.
I want to believe that it's about children, not 'white' children.
It definitely arouses the curiosity. Powerful imagery, kinda dramatic though, which might be needed in this case.
Fresco nomas
Sorry Pauly G, it's definitely about the fact that the kid is white. Note especially the flies on the face
I'm still not 100% sold. I completely see what you guys are saying, but without asking the creators of the ad, I don't think either of us can prove our point beyond a reasonable doubt.
Perhaps they used the images of the kids in somolia as inspiration. Maybe they stole one of those images and made the kid white because the ad was running in a predominantly white country.
BUT - that doesn't mean that the intended message here is that white people are more important than non-white people.
All it really means is that they wanted a really brutal image of a kid, in what they thought looked like a post-global warming world.
In a way, white people ARE more important than non-white people - to us, of course. We tend to care for ourselves most. In this conext, that seems to be very cruel, and sure it is. But it's just a strategy to cope with all this information we are exposed to every day:
Does it affect me?
>No - unimportant >Yes - may be important
The ad is the response to this strategy.
it totally felt like they are trying to say that white is more important, although it would be interpretted differently as long as europeans are targetted by it, not the rest of the world...
"Maybe they stole one of those images and made the kid white because the ad was running in a predominantly white country"
i beg to differ, if they run the same poster with a black kid in a black country, would it make any statement? white is the message, white is europe
but im a bit curious, isnt it so that south africa a white country? how come we never see white south africans with famine problems? or why wouldnt this by simply a white south african? :P
regards_______________________
http://shut.elmota.com
What? they couldn't find skinnier white kid?
There are white people starving out there too: homeless people freezing to death on the streets of New York, the masses of impoverished in eastern europe...
So hey... what the hell does this have to do with global warming? People are starving to death because of poverty... not because africa is hot and dry!
Someone just thought "Hey it'll look awesome on print if we put a pathetic looking white kid in a desert! Imagine the contrast and shock value! Oh wait! Let's slap on a social marketing angle cuz that's like soooo IN now!"
does that look to u like a homeless kid and starving of poverty? they are not talking about poverty, its global warming, and they made it pretty obvious
regards_______________________
http://shut.elmota.com
Hey ST, are you tripping? Since when did i say that this ad wasn't about global warming? And just because there are the words "homeless" and "starvation" in my comment meant I'm saying this kid is supposed to be starving and homeless? Man... you're dumb.
I meant that this ad fails to inspire fear of global warming - because there are ALREADY people around us in worse conditions than what is depicted in the ad, and most people aren't impressed.
But since you found someone to pick on, I welcome a nice little tussle...
Even if I were saying the kid is supposed to be starving and homeless (which I wasn't), I guess that's something I COULD say because:
a) The kid is OBVIOUSLY in a desert... on the ground... crying (I bet in your neighborhood, kids would rather do that then be in a nice cosy thing called a "home" eh?
b) It's also OBVIOUSLY in rags (unless that's considered urban chic where you come from)
Point a = homeless
Point b = poor
Point a + b = extreme poverty
Extreme poverty = little or no food
Little or no food = starving
There... I've proven an argument which I never even believed in in the first place... how cool is THAT?
So please practice your shut theory on yourself, or at least establish a better command of the language before you try jumping on other users' comments.
oh my God! all this talk for something that is more than obvious. The ad's message is: you ignorant white people from the western cultures who are lucky enough to only see these kind of pictures from a distance through the media and who don't do anything about it cause you think the problem is not GLOBAL wake up! Do something about it cause this problem will eventually affect you too. Not just the people who suffer NOW.
and that's that!
"there's nothing more difficult than a line"p.picasso
this is about glogal warming. what the hell are you talking about? Everybody here is confusing two issues - poverty /famine and global warming.
The ad's message cannot be that we haven't done anything to stop global warming amongst other races - the movement to stop global warming is new - we're all learning how to deal with it at the same time.
And the message of the ad cannot be that we didn't care about the poor starving people in 1985, so stop global warming. That doesn't make a lick of sense.
Everyone here should think about what they're saying.
"Do something about it cause this problem will eventually affect you too. Not just the people who suffer NOW."
Who's suffering from global warming right now? I mean really suffering. from GLOBAL WARMING! not starvation, not poverty, not disease, GLOBAL WARMING!
1: i didn't say it is NOT about global warming.
2: about the global warming movement being new: i've been reading about it for at least a decade and have been receiving mailings from greecpeace as a member for at least a decade as well.
3: i didn't say that we should do something to stop global warming amongst other races. What i said was that the way i see it is that the ads's message is based on the mentality most of us have that something bad will never affect us.
4: Who's suffering now? Global warming has already started showing its face even where i live: it's not normal to have only a few days of rain in Greece or to have 34 degrees in may.
and an excerpt from wikipedia on current effects which may be attributed to global warming:
"Some effects on both the natural environment and human life are, at least in part, already being attributed to global warming. A 2001 report by the IPCC suggests that glacier retreat, ice shelf disruption such as the Larsen Ice Shelf, sea level rise, changes in rainfall patterns, increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, are being attributed in part to global warming.[38] While changes are expected for overall patterns, intensity, and frequencies, it is difficult to attribute specific events to global warming. Other expected effects include water scarcity in some regions and increased precipitation in others, changes in mountain snowpack, adverse health effects from warmer temperatures."
In any case, the point i was trying to make was that the message of this ad is pretty clear...
"there's nothing more difficult than a line"p.picasso
wow, im guessing this is a touchy subject.
hahaha well it is if you come to think about it.
then again that is what I love about ads: one image, one copy can start a whole discussion about different points of view.
what i don't like in adsoftheworld or any other site/blog which leaves room for comments is the people who start arguing and taking things to a personal level with insults..
what i liked in paulyg's answer was exactly that: he stayed to the point without looking to act like a smart**s to me.
"there's nothing more difficult than a line"p.picasso
Yea, I'm totally with you there man. I hate giving opinions and having people tell me I'm an idiot. And it's natural for people to get a little heated sometimes, as long as the argument stays civil.
As for your previous post, I don't really have an argument. This ad just hits close to home because I am one of those 'ignorant white people', but I don't feel that I am doing something wrong by not reaching out to third world countries (concerning global warming), when we're all going to be affected by it. It's affecting our weather here as well.
So I guess, in conclusion, global warming is something we're all going to have to finally deal with in the near future, so the fact that westerners have a long history of ignoring the suffering of others, is pretty irrelevant. Ha, which is why I still think the point they were trying to make with this ad is the children. tugging at the old heart strings. I think the fact that the kid is in the desert, doesn't mean they were trying to compare us to desert countries, but to show us what north america might look like if we don't do something. But I still don't think the intended message was to imply that 'white people will be affected too.'
Wishful thinking perhaps.
but there is a fact that i am not going to claim to be sure of because I havent read it, but I heard it on radio, global warming is mainly attributed to Europe and the western industry, and that AD is not just to remind the most powerful countries to do something about it, but actually pointing out to that fact... am i not right? again, the white kid is a symbol of europe, that is all i see
regards_______________________
http://shut.elmota.com
I'm glad you agree on that and thanks for a useful dialogue (we Greeks love that point of you exchange..;-)
And you do have a point. Perhaps it's all about the children and tagging the old heart strings (being a woman who will eventually become a mum hopefully-It sure hits some sensitive strings of mine..)
"there's nothing more difficult than a line"p.picasso
Peace ppl. Its a picture every1 has their own way of looking...