WaterAid offered a new campaign about a common disease in our countries: Diarrhoea. The NGO chose to speak about it because it causes a high rate of infant mortality in poorest countries.
Who is more appropriate to speak about infant mortality than children? This group of children from primary school is fun; singing a song about diarrhoea, making noises, like any children in our countries. However, when the child from a southern village ends the song, he is not having fun or laughing. He seems more serious and less carefree. This effect is reinforced by the number of children dying of it every day, which adds a tragic dimension.
The advantage of choosing kids to sing and speak about it is a good way to avoid pathos, even if the off screen voice is kind of tragic. Nevertheless, the organization didn’t fall into the common use of dying children to encourage people to make donations. So the interesting point is this use of childish lightness to pass a message. It also reminds us that a simple annoyance like diarrhoea can have more disastrous implications in poorest countries. Meanwhile, they make the solution quite “simple”: dig toilets and we can easily help through donations.
The most interesting aspect for me in this campaign is that humour and simplicity are a good way to speak about delicate subjects. A thing that sometimes we forgot .
Today is World Humanitarian Day and here is a really nice video named: 2010 World Humanitarian Day Project which is a good representation of humanitarian work and workers all around the world like a giant human network.
This time I would like to share with you two awareness campaigns: one for Biodiversity And Biosafety Awareness from WWF France (Agency: Ogilvy, Paris, France) and an other from WWF Spain (Agency: Contrapunto BBDO, Madrid, Spain) about energy consumption.
WWF France: “What will it take before we respect the planet?”
WWF Spain: “If you don´t use it, turn it off. WWF.”
What is really interesting in those campaigns is that we can observe a major element of WWF communication. They usually refer to elements from our daily life which create a link between the cause and our life. For example, graffiti in the French campaign and objects from home in the Spanish one. It allows us to integrate the subject in our own reality.
Moreover, images are strong and really well realized. However, I think that the strength of WWF campaigns is in the combination of images and catch phrases. They don’t only explain the pictures but ad a dimension that make us think about it and our actions’ repercussions. This is what I like about it, simplicity but also an occasion to think about our habits and maybe to improve them. And it seems quite simple for some of them like turning off a ventilator
WWF Spain and Leo Burnett Iberia created a special campaign for the Madrid Comic Show, also promoted in top comic book stores in Spain.
The interesting point in this campaign is that they succeeded to adapt it to the event and to create a way to increase youngsters awareness of endangered species protection through their interest. Moreover illustrations are just amazing.
June 6th 2010 was Médecins du Monde‘s birthday. 30 years ago MDM was published in the Official Journal, which makes a new association official in France.
June 7th was MDM’s new communications campaign launch, based on its anniversary. Their target is people between 25/35 years old, knowing the organization but not its aim or how to help. The message of this campaign is «Nous sommes tous Médecins du Monde » (We are all world’s doctors).They oriented it on their present and future actions, their actors and donors.
Concerning the offline part, they entrusted Saatchi & Saatchi to realize it:
Those prints reflect four of MDM’s fights: HIV/AIDS, violence against women, help to migrants and emergency interventions. There is an interesting game in the realization: when we look at it in the first place, we create short-cuts between photo and text. But when we take the time to read the paragraph in white, we can see that they are not victims but donors. It is a really good game based on our preconceptions.
About the online part, MDM decided to create a web documentary.
It is a realization composed of témoignages from five 30 years old people from five different continents. MDM tried to show an evolution from 30 years ago with French doctors to actual MDM’s people who are not necessarily doctors or French.
The other part is a contest in which people can create a documentary to explain what precariousness means to them. At the end, the winner will be diffused by MDM and Dailymotion.
This part of the communication campaign is a good example of how important témoignage is in MDM’s actions and values and how they try to combine it with new technologies. In addition, we can observe that there is a « new » trend in nonprofit communication which boosts donors’ self-esteem.
This month is ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) awareness month. For this « occasion » ALS Society of Canada organizes an interactive campaign to make people understand what ALS means to those who have it and to their families.
This website has the advantage to make people experience what a simple daily act – for us – can be for people affected by ALS. Moreover this interface has the benefit to be simple and uncluttered, which makes it easy to interact with and increases the message’s impact and its aim: gather donations to find a cure.
I want to share with you a great campaign organized by Amnesty International New Zealand and created by Colenso BBDO, Auckland, New Zealand.
This is one of the best examples of prints that don’t need text to pass on a message. The visual is really strong; with people with different gender, origin and style, anyone is able find himself in it. Moreover, the scenes in the center are so violent and shocking that no one can be unaffected. Those words “Ignore Us, Ignore Human Rights” are powerful because of the repetition of “ignore” creating cause-effect logic and the link between « us » and « Human Rights » reminding what Amnesty is fighting for. Sometimes we just forgot what would happen if they weren’t there and that we have to take action. I really like this campaign and the realization. Good job!
Here is a short video part of “Don’t let it drop” campaign organized by WaterAid. The aim of this International NGO is to improve access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation and give a better life to world’s poorest countries.
This campaign is linked to the Millennium Development Goals Summit in September where our world’s leaders are going to take stock of the situation. This video encourages us to sign a petition to ensure that our leaders don’t forget about their commitment to water and sanitation.
The idea and the realization are good and well related to the subject. The addition of data increase the effect. To encourage people to sign a petition, this is a good video.
Tyrannybook, created by Amnesty International Portugal and Leo Burnett Iberia, is a new social network in which you can keep an eye on world leaders who violate Human Rights the most.
By creating a community around this issue, the organization not only gains visibility but also keeps people conscious of what is going on, up dated by Amnesty and users. It is a good way to give people the opportunity to discuss current issues, share point of views, become allies, etc. They also created a video to explain the concept and how to use it.
As we know, social networks are new tools in nonprofit communications strategies and this is really a good example of how to reinvent one of them by creating a community to serve an organization and a cause.
Here is a really good campaign from UNICEF South Africa created by Y&R Johannesburg:
The interesting aspect of this campaign is that they used oppositions to make people react. For example, they opposed two perceptions of toys. You have on one side the children/toys relation; commonly they consider their toys as their own world, here to listen to their pain, secrets and even to protect them. Conversely, adults consider them like harmless objects. And we all know, as grown up, that they can’t protect children.
On the other hand, the realization reinforces this effect. We are in a child room and the toys are protecting him/her from the outside. The interesting point is that the child is in a dark bedroom, which seems to be safer than outside where there is some light. And usually we feel more secure when there is light.
In addition, we are in the same room and we are just looking at a situation, not knowing what is behind the door. Letting people imagine what may happened can be more powerful than showing abuses. So, in asking that question “If you don’t fight child abuse, who will?” they encourage people to take a decision, to act. And we know that toys won’t protect children if we don’t. This is a really good fundraising campaign! Good job!
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