I love the show Mad Men about a Madison Avenue ad agency in the early 60’s. Things have changed so much in society it seems like you’re watching what’s happening on another planet. The insensitive idiots who thought up this ad must be from another galaxy.
Turns out that it wasn’t the work of the World Wildlife Fund, but an ad agency who mocked it up. After presenting the concept and being summarily rejected by the activist group, the forsaken ad made its way online, thoroughly pissing off the WWF. They condemned the plane-raining creative and the loose-lipped agency that posted it, issuing the following statement:
“WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad and did not authorize its production or publication. It is our understanding that it was a concept offered by an outside advertising agency seeking our business in Brazil. The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never have seen the light of day.”
The insensitivity doesn’t bother me as much as the lousy pitch.
They want us to preserve the environment because it’s brutal and can kill so many people? No thanks.
#1–dm==why no thanks? Most recent evidence of Mother Nature needing to be UNDERSTOOD and respected for the BENEFIT of MANKIND was about how longer warmer summers in USA is allowing bark beetles to kill more trees.
Imagine if we loose our pine/fir forests in 20 years?
Should we study this or ignore it?
what do you mean “no thanks?”
The insensitivity is compounded by the stupidity of the message. WTF does mankind have in creating a tsunami?
Shock TV is not unusual. We are a nation that is so desensitized, marketeers are always looking for that next level shock.
Politicians are getting that way as well. Look at the Republican rhetoric conducted now to get their sheep to pay them any attention.
Excuse, I don’t see nothing offensive. I think they make straight their point.
Tasteless, probably, but offensive? C’mon! Nobody is laughing about it!
The visuals are well done. The concept is fair to excellent. It’s just not great the comparison of an event of man to the event of nature. Two different forces. I guess they were trying to play on man’s “terror” effect on the planet but they really would be better off showing Al Gore going into those towers instead of planes.
#2
so if we lose our pine trees in 20 years mother nature will get mad and attack us with a tsunami? in other words, i dont see the connection between 9/11, the 2004 tsunami (earthquake), and global warming.
The fact that you think this is insensitive shows the arrogance of U.S. citizens. All the ad does is point out the facts. In the U.S. we act like the 911 attack is the holy grail of bad things that can happen. When you look at the actual death toll, it just wasn’t that bad. Yes, we were all shocked because we were shown that we are vulnerable–which I suspect was the point. We got our nose bloodied, that is it. Every few years mother nature deals a knock out punch to other countries and those tsunami’s, hurricanes, and earthquakes are soon forgotten. Why are they forgotten? Because they don’t affect out national ego.
looks like the “ad” got pulled…
I agree, it is an extremely offensive ad. It looks like something PETA would use.
However, it can be used by those countering the global warming/cooling/climate change hoax. After all, Nature itself is so much more powerful than anything humans can come up with. It would take a nuclear weapon to come close to the amount of power that Nature creates on a regular basis.
BTW, I’m not saying that Nature can’t cause global warming/cooling/climate change on it’s own. “Climate change” has been going on for millennia before the Industrial Revolution. And that doesn’t include the occasional meteor strike that has caused climate change.
I don’t understand what this ad has to do with the WFF or wrestling.
http://usatoday.com/news/health/healthcare/2002-05-22-insurance-deaths.htm
“More than 18,000 adults in the USA die each year because they are uninsured and can’t get proper health care”
That figure is from a study in 2002 and that figure is assumed to have risen.
Anyway it’s like a 9-11 attack every other month every year.
Think about it.
#7–skunk==the ad was created to support the efforts of the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) so I thought about wildlife and how millions of humans will die if some aspect of the food chain breaks down.
I’d want to look at the ad again. If the ad was only about the threat from a tsunami, then my thought is irrelevant. If the thought was that we as humans face bigger threats from other catastrophes, then I’m still in the running. Your choice, I won’t argue.
The ad does what it intended. You obsess about 9/11 which was a tragic event but you hardly care about the environment. I think Americans need to learn compassion and understand that there are people outside the US, people who suffer indirectly because of US broken policies. Tell me, does the ad say anything that is not true?
Well, it’s fair to compare westerners suffering, as represented by 9/11, with easterners suffering, as represented by the tsunami. That’s how far the fairness goes.
The comparison is ‘a bit’ bad…
The tsunami was not man made. On the other hand, much of the promised help never reached the victims. Is that the point? Mmmmm, no…
9/11 is a very sensitive topic in Western societies, as to be almost taboo. Even today I recall that day with a shiver down my spine, even though I live an ocean away. It shouldn’t even come up to anyone’s mind as a ‘cool creative idea’… Reminds me of those tasteless spoof ads featuring the WTC’s jumping off the buildings 😛 Sorry, I’m getting sick here…
I have to ask..
Is the WTB island reversed in this picture??
Or am I seeing things?
found the ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuiXz3W_0p8
the more you pull it, the worse it gets
The reaction to the ad shows just how egocentric Americans really are.
That’s envirowacko anti-capitalist creatives for you. They failed their compare and contrast paper in college but still think they are experts in the art of communication.
I can’t believe that the WWF would do such a pin headed move like this. I can see PETA doing something like this but the WWF…….. The WWF just lost my respect.
1. fuck earth, except maybe norway
2. you do know that outside usa nobody cares about 11/9?
Buy our add or we’ll put it on you tube. Is this a new business modal or just a shake down gone bad?
After watching the ad, “that never was” I found it to be factual and not so offensive, maybe tasteless as somone already mentioned. It points out several things about the world and America, how, it does make a pint that Mother nature can be as cruel as man, but she has never changed over the last xx billion years. I am tire of the touchy feely people of the world..get a grip and get on with your own business… In a direct comparison to the 2 events…the Tsunami was much more destructibve to families all over the world. But in the case of 9/11.. and reprecussions,…the Bush admin got what it wanted to take away our freedoms… so we really lost…. it may be tasteless, but just the facts man…….. try to live greener..every bit helps… China shuld learn a thing or 2?… They actuAlly have an underground coal fire that has been burning many years that produces more CO2 than all the cars in the USA combines..(True!! watch discovery) + the enourmous pollution thay produce daily…but the USA is always an easy target…for all… I am an American… and Also Glad I no longer live ther… becaue of many factors… mostly bush related…
Sure, it is tasteless, but when you compare what happened on 9/11 with many other events in history (WWII anyone??), it is pretty minor.
My grandmother had a reaction I would not have predicted to 9/11: “I don’t know why they are so upset. We lived through YEARS of bombings during WWII in England”.
It is all about perspective. When you usually live terror free, something like this takes on a very large part of your perspective. When you live it every day for a few years, it doesn’t affect you so much… Or so it would seem. I would never advocate the actions, but it makes you stop and think…
#23
Exactly. USA’s territory is relatively peaceful and its economic and politic importance was what caused such uproar.
Both man and nature caused far greater catastrophes than 9/11, and they still do. It’s just that great damage was caused at once that time, but it stopped as suddenly as it began.
#10
What do you mean by climate change “hoax”? Don’t you actually believe humans can alter the climate? We have been altering the environment to fit our needs for a loong time. It’s not surprising that we would end up causing (of furthering) a large scale unintended environmental change.
Take a look at this (everybody knows Wikipedia is never wrong :D):
Now that I can actually see the Ad …
one of the worst tragedies of the history if humanity!!!!!!???? 2000 deaths!!!???
I mean despite the mother nature is going mad fallacy they really should try to read a little bit about humanity….
Hard to believe this is from Brazil, unless you think Brazil is in another Galaxy