The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: Golfhaus on October 13, 2005, 06:25:52 pm
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UNICEF has sponsored a 30-second ad meant to shock people into paying attention to the children orphaned by war by displaying the Smurfs getting bombed. Papa Smurf goes MIA, and everyone else dies except Baby Smurf, who cries, alone, at the end.
The CBC (http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2005/10/12/Arts/smurfs_20051012.html?ref=rss)
MetaFilter (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/45744)
My SO hates the Smurfs, and enjoys this way too much. I won't watch the video myself. The WTF? moment, as already pointed out on MeFi, is that a UNICEF spokesman said that they went this route because they didn't want to trivialize the suffering of kids by putting them in the commercial but also because "traditional images of suffering in Third World war zones had lost their power to move television viewers."
MANGLED ORPHANS NO LONGER MOVE YOU... PERHAPS THIS CARTOON WILL MAKE YOU...SEE!
The sad thing is, they're right. Show me some kids missing arms on the news... eh. Whatever. Pass the biscuits. But DON'T SHOW ME THE SMURF VIDEO, BECAUSE THEN I'M GOING TO LOSE IT.
For the record, the family of the late creator of the Smurfs supports the project, and has given it their support.
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Sad, really. I wonder what the analogue in the US would be (since the Smurfs are still huge in Europe, at least in Belgium where they came from).
I can't get excited about the smurfs getting bombed either way. Contrary to my reactions to lots of other things, though, the starving kids on TV still get to me occasionally. Not enough to potentially get ripped off by a faux charity (my benevolence money goes to Church-sponsored relief) but still...
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I don't believe in charity. I do, however, believe that that video is pretty hilarious.
But then I hate the smurfs more than I hate my ingrown toenail that has turned black.