Stupid charity ad using 7/7 bombers in antisuicide campaign
- Thread starter Badger Kitten
- Start date
Badger Kitten
oof
But they are described as '' 4 suicidal young men'' who ''got our attention'', like ''983 suicidal young men'' who, erm, ''didn't get our attention.
Look
That looks like straight equivalence to me. The difference being, the 983 didn't get as much attention. They are all described as ''suicidal young men''.
I think this is a bunch of arse and the bombers were HOMICIDAL. Homicide, not suicide was their primary aim.They are not remembered as ''suicidal young men'' are they? They are remembered as terrorist mass murderers.
Depression/feeling suicidal is bad enough without people assuming that you may be considering killing dozens of innocent people.
Look
That looks like straight equivalence to me. The difference being, the 983 didn't get as much attention. They are all described as ''suicidal young men''.
I think this is a bunch of arse and the bombers were HOMICIDAL. Homicide, not suicide was their primary aim.They are not remembered as ''suicidal young men'' are they? They are remembered as terrorist mass murderers.
Depression/feeling suicidal is bad enough without people assuming that you may be considering killing dozens of innocent people.
chegrimandi
associated with adultery
Badger Kitten said:
yes. they've shown one way of doing it.
not many people will bother to deconstruct the ad.
you don't know what their desired message is because you've not seen the brief.
you're projecting you're intepretation of what their message should be.
you don't know that the target audience will be offended - you only know you are.
Badger Kitten said:Well I am sorry to link to a story in the Evil Standard, but the file of the pic is too big for me to upload, so here is the link.
CALM ( Campaign Against Living Miserably) is a charity seeking to raise awareness of suicide in young men. A praiseworthy initiative, I think. So what the fuck are they doing with this STUPID poster?
Poster shows:
Picture of exploded No.30 bus.
Strapline 'Last year, four suicidal British men got out attention. Unfortunately, 983 others didn't.'
At the bottom of the advertisement are the words 'help stop suicide'.
I think this is utterly crass for several reasons:
Apart from upsetting people including survivors and families, and other people affected by 7/7, some of whom may have considered suicide this last year, it is also likely to upset its target audience which is 15-35 year old young men ( specifically young men apparently) considering suicide.
If I was a suicidal young man, I would be extremely angry at any comparison with a suicide bomber. Homicide-suicide is not at all the same as suffering from a depressive illness which can make life unbearable.
They have chosen completely the wrong example to make a point.
I am sorry if it seems insensitive to raise this right now. I am very much in favour of getting help and support to anyone who is feeling depressed and considering suicide, and that is why internet sites, for example, can be incredibly helpful. I think CALM's aims are good. I cannot understand why Ogilvie and Mather came up with this creative. The tragic death of almost a thousand young men a year is shocking enough, without having to use mass murderers in the advertising campaign to make a point.
They didn't even run this in media specifically-targeted at young men. They are running it on billboards, all over the country, many of them in London as I understand it. So anyone can see it.
They said that they wanted to be ''controversial''. Stupid fuckers.
Anyway. What do you think? Is it a reasonable albeit shocking ad and am I over-reacting? Or is it crap?
Seems to remind me of a lot of threads I have read on this board really.
Poster 1 says something that involves two different items that they are not trying to say are related, but which involve some co-incidental piece of information. Poster 2 accuses the poster of suggesting the two are comparable in anyway.
For the example of the Ad, They create an ad pointing out that while 4 suicides were known by many, 983 are generally ignored.
Daily Mail comes along and decides that by saying that, you are comparing them.
Where does the ad compare homicide-suicide and depressive suicide? It really doesn't, but saying it does make it appear bad and gives people a reason to get upset.
The ad points out that there are a lot more suicides that aren't generally acknowledged by the public. Not that two seperate suicides are comparable.
As to them using the images, well its not like they are trying to sell something is it, they are trying to help people, including those that you mention were victims of the attack and have felt suicidal. So no I don't think its insensitive to use the images and I don't see any comparison between two distinct styles of suicide.
I have no doubt that they will apologise tho, as seems the way in our society, if the Daily Mail bleats hard enough, I am sure someone somewhere in authority will apologise for something.
wiskey
Albatross Admirer
Badger Kitten said:
all year they have been called 'suicide bombers' - they committed suicide, they could ahve done that without taking anybody else with them, they didnt, they killed others. but they havent been called 'homocidal bombers' in the press all year.
i think this small charity are playing on that.
Badger Kitten
oof
2 readers when I blogged about it said:
I don't know, i am not a young man. I have considered suicide in the past. It strikes me as intuitively counter productive, ( the ad message) and when I was writing about it yesterday those comments seemed to back it up. But I was wondering if I was over-reacting, which is why I thought I'd raise the subject here.
I still think the suicide rate in men is so high that it is a shocking enough fact without needing to use an image or link that doesn't stack up, because they are not in the same category as the target audience, so comparing homicide suicide with suicide is just... wrong.
Badger Kitten
oof
gunneradt said:
Potential male 15-35 suiciders ARE the target audience, the secondary audience is peopel who will raise money by texting the number for £1.50 to help the charity.
chegrimandi
associated with adultery
Badger Kitten said:
yet its not widely talked about - does that indicate its a tough issue to get on to the news agenda to you - unlike say - something like breast cancer? So hence maybe the shock tactics?
The link to 7/7 is the one thing that would get the issue/charity in the news - guaranteed - if only for the outrage...it's done iits job.
I think its an effective ad.
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
And how many young males have complained about the ad? Thing is BK, both those responses were with knowledge of what you'd said, they weren't cold - effectively they'd been told what the comparison was by you, not allowed to work it out themselves which while not discounting their response, certainly lessens it's value as a complaint. Not being heartless here, but I rather think your own experience on 7/7 is what's really driving your offence.
The ad is good - it draws attention to the fact that 983 young men didn't get any attention and that could have saved their lives, it raises awareness of CALM etc. But as Cheggers said, without seeing the brief etc it's not possible to comment to the level of deconstructing the ad.
And has someone made the point that to detonate a bomb strapped to you that you know will kill people puts you into the 'pretty seriously fucked up in the head' category?
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
For someone who professes that they "counldn't give a fuck about morality" you appear to be looking at the suicide for a cause against suicide because of debt equation from a rather morally judgemental position.tgho said:
You have this thing about debt suicide, I notice.
Odd how none of the organisations who have researched suicide over the last decade or so have found debt to be the primary motivating factor. In fact geography is by far the largest determinant in the UK, with men in Scotland twice as likely to commit suicide FOR ANY REASON as in the rest of the UK.
Suicide and attempted suicide aren't "tricks" at all.
Badger Kitten
oof
kyser_soze said:
Well, I've had two saying they were offended already
And as for the being pretty seriously fucked up in the head category, yes, but there's no indication counselling or talking to someone at CALM would have made any difference to stopping a suicide terrorist cell carrying out its mission, is there?
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
Badger Kitten said:
Sorry - you must've missed my e2a on that post. The problem you've got there is that they are both primed responses to YOUR blog and comments, not a direct cold response to the ad itself - would they have responded that way from a cold viewing?
And how do you know that talking to ANYONE outside of their cell wouldn't have helped? That's pretty presumptious don't you think?
Badger Kitten
oof
wiskey said:
Both of the commenters I quoted have identified themselves as previously suicidal, one is definitely a young ex suicidal male, both have defintely identified themselves as affected by the issue of suicide, which puts them in the target audience for CALM's campaign.
And they could just have easily disagreed with me, like many of you are doing, that's what the blog comments are for, debate - the blog isn't full of sock puppets, one other commenter said what lots of people here are saying - its about saying 900+ suicidal men got no attention and 4 did. That's why I thought ot was interesting and decided to see what people thought over here.
I have never said I disagree with CALM's aims, I support them , I just cannot see the point of that particular creative, yes, it gets headlines, but I still think - as an ex advertising professional - that it is a crap ad for the reasons I have given. I think they could have used better, different creative.
I have said that they must have known it would affect 7/7 people but we are not the target ,however, the comments I got indicated that it is upsetting the target audience too.
I'm quite angry about it, but not especially upset ie. weepy or whatever on a personal level, just annoyed. Because they could have done it much better, IMO. There are quite a lot of survivors and families who are upset though, which makes me pissed off on their behalf, because obviously I care about them, I'm in contact with them, they're mates. I have had contact with suicidal people this year via the 7/7 thing as well, and if they are telling me it is a shit ad, and upsets them, well then, I am in agreement. Bad copy, bad creative, damn shame, because big problem and needs to be raised.
IMO, obv.
Badger Kitten
oof
but they are no more primed than anyone here, who has read my first post and is disagreeing with me?
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