Stupid charity ad using 7/7 bombers in antisuicide campaign

[lostexpectation]

My grief's bigger than yours.

signed Jane Powell CALM. Was going to plastered on posters around the country.



a Who's Suffered Most Derby with scant fucking regard for the issues.

apparently Jane Powell has, so she thought she could stomp on 7/7.

--------------------------------------------------------------

when you click on

http://www.fusedevelopment.com/calm/survey/index.aspx


it says the form is confidential and won't be tracked yet. I accept this

but when they start offering these things you will be tracked

Your lifestyle

We would like to be able to offer visitors to the site free downloads, tickets and offers. Help us out here and tell us what your interests are so that we offer the stuff you want.

well it seems strange when every criticises BONO for RED and pre RED campaings, reducing poverty to branding exercise for more rich people to workon.


ever the critic of media and consumer society this guy , he seems to the one behind the commercialistion of the service.

http://www.thecalmzone.net/tune_in/articles/default.aspx?id=36

here are the other ads
http://www.thecalmzone.net/tune_in/articles/default.aspx?id=50
all 'ok' except when trying to play the medias game.

and the radio ones
http://www.thecalmzone.net/tune_in/articles/default.aspx?id=67

 

[Jonti]

My grief's bigger than yours.

signed Jane Powell CALM. Was going to plastered on posters around the country.

Can you expand on this, please? Are you saying that CALM were intending to market the heirarchy of grief notion (presumably with themselves as the greatest supporters of the most grievously hurting)? Or was the idea to disrespect other people's grief? What is the context of the comment?

Sorry to ask so many questions, but the stuff you quoted in your post seems very distasteful, even in comparison with their other "ideas" that CALM has played around with.

Do you have a source for the information, please?

 

[William of Walworth]

Society isn't really interested in the dead suicides. It's almost like an embarrassment that gets swept under the table, out of sight.

Suicide cuts a large swath in terms of causes of death amongst young people, but you'd hardly know it from the attention it gets.

Anyone who's ever had a close friend or relative who's committed suicide, knows of the pain.

I made a comment on a thread the other day: it's a certainty that if you talk about death from car accidents or anything at all, someone will come along and say 'but we're ignoring the deaths in Iraq'.

Suicides are like the deaths in Iraq. They just keep happening, but nobody's talking about it.

This thread has gone pear shaped since last night

But I think the point Johnny's trying to make here is a tad misdirected, because I don't think ANYONE criticising the ad as an ad (ie questioning its effectiveness, wondering whether it's counterproductive, etc.) in any way wants CALM to fail in their aims, or in any way wants the deaths of suicidal young men not to be publicised.

IMO the core issue of this thread, inbetween all the upset and insults, is whether the proposed ad was effective or not. In my view it wasn't, or wasn't likely to be.

FFF, if you're reading this today, one thing you may have missed (since you have Dub on ignore) is that he, as well as you, has lost a friend to suicide. I have to say I agree with him that your apparant (and general) implication that those disliking the ad and questioning its effectiveness in some way care less about suicide than the 'any publicity is good publicity' side of the argument, is a tad below the belt to say the least.

Some posters (wordie, Dub -- mostly! -- two sheds and Donna Ferentes, frinstance) have been trying to discuss the ad in terms of whether or not its likely to work, whether its effective or not. BK in some of her less emotive posts has been trying to do the same. I don't think there's anything wrong with that and IMO this thread would have been a lot better if that central issue -- effectiveness -- had been concentrated on and stuck to from the start

 

[fudgefactorfive]

*shrug* I'm just not ashamed, sorry. Thread's over now - all those retired Majors in Bedfordshire got their way, as usual.

 

[tarannau]

*shrug* I'm just not ashamed, sorry. Thread's over now - all those retired Majors in Bedfordshire got their way, as usual.

Oh fuck off with the shitey, unjustified stereotypes and moral grandstanding.

Does anyone on this thread resemble a 'retired Major in Bedfordshire?" Have you any evidence that those are the type of people to complain?

The strange irony is that there are at least 2 folks on this thread working in advertising who believe that this creative route was at least unwise and insensitive, particularly when there were so many equivalent options available to the campaign. That doesn't sit well with the haste to try and portray those with legitimate concerns as some kind of hybrid Mary Whitehouse/retired major charicature.

 

[fudgefactorfive]

Does anyone on this thread resemble a 'retired Major in Bedfordshire?"

No comment.

I'll take your advice though and fuck off.

 

[William of Walworth]

Does anyone on this thread resemble a 'retired Major in Bedfordshire?" Have you any evidence that those are the type of people to complain?

The strange irony is that there are at least 2 folks on this thread working in advertising who believe that this creative route was at least unwise and insensitive, particularly when there were so many equivalent options available to the campaign. That doesn't sit well with the haste to try and portray those with legitimate concerns as some kind of hybrid Mary Whitehouse/retired major charicature.

You seem to have ignored the substantive bit (in bold) of tarannau's post, fff. Which I agree with as it happens ...

That 'retired major' nonsense was a cheap, insulting and hugely inaccurate dig -- I expect you know that, really.

I don't see any need for you to retire from the thread. But a bit more patience with where other posters are really coming from would probably help -- that applies to everyone ...

 

[Badger Kitten]

Oh, being called a retired major is nothing...

''Well done - you've censored a mental health charity because your mates didn't like it. Hope all the kids that top themselves over the next few months don't make you feel too guilty.''

I also apparently send ''hatemail'' as well.

 

[William of Walworth]

That's out of order -- I think I must have missed that post before.

ETA : FFF I don't want to look like I'm being excessively harsh to you, but I'm really confused at why you see any need to make your points so contentiously and insultingly ... of course other posters have been emotive in this thread too and there's been a fair few insults being flung around from all sides but somewhere in the thread as well there's a proper debate about advertising campaigns for a charity (whose aims and mission not a single poster has been critical of or fails to support) and whether certain types of campaign work.

There's difference of opinion about effectiveness or not, but I think suggesting that those who don't think it works are would be censors or Mary Whitehouse types, or suggesting that they're in some way dismissive of/opposed to what this charity is trying to achieve, gets us nowhere IMO ...

 

[Dubversion]

edit - can't be arsed.

 

[Badger Kitten]

well I am out of this thread and I apologise to anyone I have offended as I go. Don't see point of continuing debate anymore as I think all has been said, and probably more than needs to be said on the subject, certainly from me.

 

[phildwyer]

The ad does a fine job in drawing attention to what has become an epidemic of depression in Western society. That epidemic is indeed largely ignored, because it suggests that there is something deeply rotten at our society´s core--which is of course precisely the same point being made (albeit more forcefully) by the suicide bombers. While young men have always committed suicide in large numbers, they typically did so for reasons of honor or principle. The current rash of young men killing themselves simply because life has lost all meaning for them is specific to the era of Western capitalism. Goethe´s "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is of course the manifesto and earliest expression of the problem. I say that the ad is good.

 

[Jazzz]

Of course the advert is effective reinforcement that these men were suicide bombers, which some dispute.

 

[Dubversion]

oh fuck off

 

[rollinder]

it doesn't even sound like an anti-suicide organisation "The Campaign Against Living Miserably offers a helpline and website for guys to chill out a little, sort stuff out, and go places."

 

[lostexpectation]

heres the folow up article in the guardian http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,1923065,00.html?
bugmenot.com

again both claiming to have personal experience as an excuse to play the media game they say they detest???



again jane powell is this the typical burnt out charity worker who been working on one subject too long, with limited response, and again thinks her casue is bigger then others.


see those ads above, they're ok/good, trying hip/kewl methods like graffitti on posters, and I don't care attitude, but there not exactly groundbreaking or excellent, which shows you how out of character the 7/7 ad was, it wasn't genius it was wrong.

 

[Badger Kitten]

Well., I spent the whole afternoon with Jane Powell, and she is very nice. She admits she and the ad account director from O&M were just too close to the campaign and their desire to shock and provoke was very strong and they didn't guage reaction properly or think through the implications of using that creative. The reaction was overwhelmingly negative from the public and the media and very hard for her to deal with.

Anyway, looking on the positive side, I've got still some client contacts from my previous career working in 15-35 male advertising and media, so I made a few calls from the pub and we're going in together to pitch to one of them, the marketing director of a major UK male fashion chain, to see if we can get some corporate sponsorship to help cover the phone lines costs. So that's quite good, and I feel pleased about the outcome, and so does she. A better ending than expected to a toal carcrash of a thread/campaign.

 

[lostexpectation]

fashion chain my god but I thought...

Perhaps we’ve had it easy for too long and it’s our turn to be bombarded with adverts like the above. Perhaps we should grin and bear it?

That’s not what CALM thinks. Rather than begrudgingly accept new pressures, why not challenge them? Decide for ourselves whether wrinkle-free skin and a six-pack are what we want to be judged on by others and each other. Shouldn’t we make-up our own minds whether that’s going to helpful, or hell on earth? With all the gym time we’re already expected to put in, isn’t the last thing we need more weights on our shoulders.

 

[Badger Kitten]

it's not posh fashion, its the sort of high street place men go to get jeans and T shirts.

 

[William of Walworth]

heres the folow up article in the guardian http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,1923065,00.html?

You need to subscribe to see that article ... (this is true of all online Media Guardian stuff).

But it wasn't a bad article, I thought.

 

[wordie]

Well., I spent the whole afternoon with Jane Powell, and she is very nice. She admits she and the ad account director from O&M were just too close to the campaign and their desire to shock and provoke was very strong and they didn't guage reaction properly or think through the implications of using that creative. The reaction was overwhelmingly negative from the public and the media and very hard for her to deal with.

Anyway, looking on the positive side, I've got still some client contacts from my previous career working in 15-35 male advertising and media, so I made a few calls from the pub and we're going in together to pitch to one of them, the marketing director of a major UK male fashion chain, to see if we can get some corporate sponsorship to help cover the phone lines costs. So that's quite good, and I feel pleased about the outcome, and so does she. A better ending than expected to a toal carcrash of a thread/campaign.

Well done BK! A positive and constructive outcome for the charity and an appreciation by them that perhaps their initial thinking was misguided.

After all the vitriol, and blatant personal attacks against you and your position throughout this thread, I wonder if any of the people doing the slagging, have done half as much for the charity?

Somehow I doubt it.