2 posts tagged “advertising”
I forgot to congratulate you David on this!!!! my brain is 6 months behind on webby world. "Six apart is launching
an advertising network for blogs and will begin offering professional
services (design, implementation, development, optimization) after
acquiring New York based creative agency Apperceptive"
I am in shock after reading Jeff Chang's post on Davidjacob's Random Walks. - but then again having worked for the UN briefly - I am not in shock at the blatant insensitivity of this ad. And hello UNICEF - it's obvious from your insincere apology below that you don't understand why people are protesting this campaign - it's not about the cosmetic brown make up itself - it's about the racism and stetreotypes that the make up signifies.
From Can't Stop Won't stop:
Save Africa hipsterism reached a new low this summer with this UNICEF campaign by ad company Jung von Matt/Alster presenting German children in blackface. You can see them beginning here. More analysis here.
Even the taglines, meant to call attention to Africa's educational crisis, sound nuts. Here's one: ""In Africa, kids don't come to school late, but not at all."
Lost in translation maybe? Nein! After protests, there was this reply from a UNICEF official:
The idea behind is that children from Germany demonstrate their solidarity with children in Africa by showing up with a coloured make up. Their message is: "Children may look different but are equal - we all want to go to school." Absolutely no connotation of black children as "dirty children" was intended.
Before publishing the ad, we had carefully discussed possible misinterpretations and the agency had also tested public reaction in a survey in Germany, without receiving negative comments. Neither did we receive any negative reaction from the German public after publication.
The ad was published in a few high-quality print media like Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Spiegel, Die Zeit, Stern, free-of-charge. These media had never volunteered to publish the ad if they would have expected a negative connotation. Obviously, the perception of the ad varies by country... We apologize if you feel irritated by the make up of the children.
Onward...to cultural understanding, oh UNICEF soldiers!
Originally posted by Zentronix from zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric
