07 July 2011
A Better Life Without...
Now this would be a great NGO campaign. Too bad it is not real. Put together by students bye the Miami Ad School in Madrid, the video mocks standard NGO commercials and imagines a world without Oxfam. It was just awarded the Golden Pencil at the D&AD Awards.
I quite like the video and think it would be an excellent shift by NGOs as well as a clever way to connect supporters to individuals in the field. In starting with imagining a world without Oxfam, the focus is on achieving the mission of the organization and putting itself out of business. Other ads could be developed that imagine a world without poverty and show how Oxfam would not be needed.
Any NGO can go for this type of campaign. Are any willing to step up?
HT Duncan Green
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10 comments:
The Global Poverty Project created a similar viral video to this as part of their Make September Count campaign last year at http://wnnn.tv/
Any aid organisation that focused on getting people to connect with its own workers, rather than giving voice and stories from its beneficiares, would instantly and rightly be accused by you and me and others Tom, of rank Kristoffian whites-in-shining-armor-ism.
Good point Cynan. What interests me is the idea of admitting that success means going out of business. A focus on the staff would miss the mark by saying that it is they who will do the 'saving.' To that extent, I entirely agree with you and thank you for pointing it out.
Maybe a better ad would flip the idea and focus on the lives of individuals without NGOs. Could lampoon the idea of all the logos and a life without seeing the logo of an aid org on a bag of rice.
Hi Tom,
Yeah, it's funny. But it's also sad. Most Americans don't give a shit about global poverty and inequity. Most don't even have a fundamental understanding of many of the problems, or how we sometimes contribute to these problems. Our political leaders (unlike the British and most European leaders) are squeamish even talking about foreign aid.
This video represents insiders' humor, or just plain-old cynicism. Making fun of an aid organization, frankly, is low-hanging fruit. If I showed this to 100 people on the street, 99 of them would laugh and say "Yeah, that's why I don't give a shit."
I definitely did not think of it in that manner, but you do make an excellent point.
"I'm Susan Sarandon"
Perfect.
Actually, Tom, I would venture to say most PEOPLE don't care about global poverty and inequity. If you asked a random Chinese person whether they cared about some poor starving child in Random Countrystan, they would probably shrug it off just like any American. Or Brazilian. Or Japanese.
I think the video is clever and turns typical NGO ad campaigns on their heads - we laugh because obviously aid workers aren't poor and pitiable. On second thought, though, shouldn't the average African be viewed the same way? Maybe it will get a few people thinking about the way organizations portray their work and start a conversation. One can always hope, anyway.
Hi Jessica,
Well, I guess that's the problem. Most people should care about global poverty and inequity because it actually affects them -- everyone -- much more than they think. It's part of what's driving climate change (wood fire cooking, deforestation). It's pretty much the main reason we have wars, I would contend. If more Americans understood this, we wouldn't have to listen to politicians debate cutting our already piddly amount (one percent or so of the federal budget) of foreign aid.
So, yes, I think the joke here -- and the point -- may be well-received and useful within the aid/development community. But I still think it misses the bigger point and, if it was widely circulated, would only help undermine the already anemic public support that exists for aid and development.
I think I'm going to have to do a post on this now ....
Best
I decided I needed to post on the pathological self-deprecation of the aid comunity:
Y'know, Plan International have been doing this for years - it works in individual communities, boosting the links between people and local govt (sounds simple, actually kind of complicated), often over many years. Once those links are functioning and strong, Plan phases out and the communities get on with their own development. Life is better without Plan ;O)
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