UNICEF, a.k.a. United Nations Childrens Fund, has decided to create an anti war short by characterizing the Smurfs being blown to hell from bombs dropped by warplanes. A spokesman for UNICEF has said his agency wanted to shock viewers because traditional images of third world war zones were not working.I can understand wanting to get the publics' attention regarding various human rights issues, but is using cartoon characters as victims really necessary? Does UNICEF honestly believe that families are going to sit around the table and have long deep discussions about global violence after their children have just witnessed their beloved characters being massacred?
I'm quite surprised that the owners of Peyo's estate decided to give permission for this. If someone releases a STD video starring Smurfette I'm going to be really pissed.
This may set an ugly precedence. I don't have children, but I hate to imagine having to explain to my nephews why some ad agency hired by a humanitarian organization decided to depict their heroes being killed.
I can see some West African relief org releasing a video of various Warner Bros characters having their limbs cut off because they don't support the current totalitarian regime. At the end the narrator will say "Every time you buy a diamond from DeBeers Tweety loses a foot." Porky Pig will then say "That's all folks" to the now famous Looney Tunes theme. Ugh.
Now imagine if PETA decided to use these tactics. Foghorn Leghorn being chopped to bits in a meat grinder, Pluto being beaten by some brute, and/or the Care Bears being shot by some mad hunter drunk on lite beer. Good lord this really disturbs me.
I say smurf UNICEF. I call on Hefty Smurf to smurf them up something smurfy.
"We wanted something that was real war - Smurfs losing arms, or a Smurf losing a head -but they (Peyo's estate) said no." - Julie Lamoureux, account director at Publicis for the ad campaign.
UNICEF ad drops bomb on Smurfs
Update: Here is a real crappy video of a broadcast which contains the Smurf video.
5 comments:
people can ignore the victim by the war in reality but they cant stand with the lovely smurfs being bombed in cartoon world.
Well spoken. Maybe those little bastards had WMDs.
" Care Bears being shot by some mad hunter drunk on lite beer"
Man, that would be so awesome. In all seriousness, though, I gotta agree with you and say that this is entirely UN-Smurfy. Why exactly is UNICEF targeting children in the first place? What's next? Images of the Autobots being turned into fuel-efficient hybrids?
I can -definitly- see an attack on the Care Bears getting some attenton! I should know since I'm quite the addicted fan...even though I'm a guy (gasp!) and a late teenager (*GASP!*). You wouldn't even have to kill any of them, just have the hunter or whoever injure the two little cubs with a double-barreled 12-guage, preferably a sawed off to boot.
...-OH- yes that would get noticed! But it just might get donations dropped out of protest. UNICEF is walking on -very- thin ice here. I booed it and I've never even -seen- one single smurf cartoon in my life!
P.S.-I'm not writing from a mental institution, if you were wondering - My screen name is Dark-Star because I'm hiding in the shadows of the internet. I'll give you all three guesses why.
dark-star
1) You work for the Feds.
2) You have too many love children and you are avoiding child support.
3) Your ashamed of your parents who are Enron executives.
Am I close?
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