This is one stupid doozy.
Done for the World Wildlife Foundation by DDB Brasil, this ad won a prestigious One Show award. WWF, to their credit, has denounced the work. One Show also stripped it of its honors.
(Read a good account of the fiasco in Fast Company: In Advertising, Stupidity Can Win You Awards.)
The real difference between this and all the other stupid nonprofit ads I present here is this: Everyone noticed. (Check out the blog buzz on Technorati.)
The ad is like so many others in its class: inept, abstract, and disengaged from reality. But it raised an uproar because of its shocking poor taste in the bizarre and illogical connection it draws between the 9/11 attacks and the Indian Ocean tsunami.
It also uncovered the agency award scam system: Agencies will approach nonprofits, offer to do free work for them. The work is specifically geared to win awards, not help the nonprofit. They actually place their ads so they're eligible for awards, but usually in out-of-the-way places. Then submit the work, and sometimes win awards for it.
So remember: Just say no to the agency award scam! I'll bet WWF is wishing they'd done that right now. Stupid nonprofit ads can do grave damage. But only if you allow it.
Just in case the print ad isn't horrifyingly stupid enough, there's also a TV version. Watch with care -- it's stomach-churning awful:
Technorati Tags: fundraising, advertising
The Agency Award Scam is only one to beware of. Look out for these others!
-Our Creatives are Bored Scam. Because all they ever flog is credit cards and phone plans. So we offer a not for profit free work and then go ape their brand. When the not for profit asks why we disfigured their logo, we say but we did it for free, pout, look hurt and say not for profits don't understand branding.
-We Don't Have Enough Work Scam. So we'll offer to do some free work for a not for profit. We'll then use that to leverage more paying work by pointing out what nice chaps we are because we assist 'good causes'. When we become busy the free work will end up at the back of the queue. When the not for profit asks for a status report we'll tell them we haven't got time to work on their project anymore. When the not profit expresses dismay at the time they have invested for no return, we'll look hurt, pout and say the not profit doesn't understand the real world.
Posted by: John B. | 20 September 2009 at 23:47
My god. That is one of the most appalling ads I have ever seen. No only is it insulting to those affected by 9/11 as pointed out in WWF's apology, it is also disrectful to those affected by the tsunami (who miss out on an apology). No amount of campaigning work by WFF would have prevented either tragedy that they so insentively seek to leverage, but they only recognise wrong doing in one case. Not only is the ad insentitive, WWF's response is as well.
Posted by: John B. | 20 September 2009 at 23:35
Check out Top 50 Stupid, Bad, Banned Ads and Commercials
Posted by: Michael Garmahis | 20 September 2009 at 19:10
"Our planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it."
It's as if conservationists are trying to mimic Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"--Respect the planet or it will smite you with its almighty wrath!
Posted by: Katie Shaddix | 18 September 2009 at 16:12
THANK YOU for calling attention to the agency award scam!!! It is amazing how people are blinded by "free" to lose sight of "effective" and "audience-connected" --- and how agencies prey on nonprofits, all the while diminishing the very reputation of professionals in the field who work in the interest of advancing missions.
Posted by: Melanie Schmidt | 18 September 2009 at 10:23