An ad campaign for U.K based children’s charity Barnardo’s has generated 60 complaints, over its graphic nature, to the U.K.’s advertising watchdog. One of newspaper ads shows an infant with a cockroach coming out of its mouth. Other ads show a bottle of alcohol and a syringe in the mouth of the infant. The ads are meant to shock the public into realizing the effects of poverty, homelessness and alcohol on youth.
Jane Goldman, a contributing writer to the Ad-Rag, defends the campaign saying, “If the ad is making people cringe that it’s (the poor treatment of poverty-bound infants) going on, then the ad is working. Just because people don’t want to see it, well that’s sort of the whole point of the ads. To get the fact that these things are happening out there to those who live in their own little worlds, and to show that there is a way to stop these things from happening. If the ads aren’t going to be seen by kids who would be scared or scared by them, then I don’t see a problem with them at all. You can’t close your eyes to the horrors going on and wish them away. Life isn’t a Disney movie.”
There are unfortunate circumstances in our world yet many choose to ignore them and go on with their daily lives oblivious to the difficult situation of others. Shock value is sometimes the only thing that can pull us out of our daily routine long enough to realize the plight of others. In this respect, this campaign is dead-on effective and should be applauded for it’s effort.
