I have a visceral reaction of disgust whenever I see this ad by the World Wildlife Fund, though I can’t exactly explain why.
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Tasteless or powerful? What’s your verdict?
Whatever you think about the visual imagery, the message—”The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it”—seems to be a non sequitur. What exactly is the point? Nature is like terrorism so give us money to preserve it?
Update: In the comments section, Jeffrey Overstreet points out that the U.S. chapter of WWF doesn’t like the ad either:
For what it’s worth, the ad has surprised even the World Wildlife Fund people, and they’re condemning it too. NBC reports that the ad “is credited to agency DDB Brasil for WWF-Brazil — but ran in Israel, of all places. A representative for the US headquarters of WWF said they had been unaware of the offensive poster until today.”
Read more about it here.
September 1st, 2009 | 3:10 pm
“…though I can’t exactly explain why”
because the wound is still open
September 1st, 2009 | 3:24 pm
At first glance it’s the equating of murder to a natural disaster that repulsive. Worse than that, it’s their way of saying that the 9/11 murders were no big deal really.
But the ad’s tagline is really something: The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.
Umm…so the earth = Muslim terrorists flying airplanes. Was the tsunami the earth ‘getting back at us?’ A warning? And what if that many Muslim terrorists did fly planes into NYC? According to this ad their extremism should be respected and preserved?
September 1st, 2009 | 3:38 pm
First time I’d seen that. “Visceral reaction of disgust” about sums it up. Other visceral reaction: put the World Wildlife Fund on the list of organizations that have fallen into the hands of the morons.
September 1st, 2009 | 3:43 pm
AIDS/HIV kills about 2 million people per year, or approximately 10 times the number of people who died in the 2004 tsunami. Would the WWF find an AIDS awareness ad objectionable if it depicted dozens of waves, filled with bloated, broken corpses, heading toward Africa? I think so.
The WWF needs to be ad-busted, they’re losing the plot.
September 1st, 2009 | 3:59 pm
In addition to being (in my opinion) in bad taste, the ad also seems to suggest in the main caption that because 100 times more people were killed in the tsunami, the tsunami is 100 times worse. Certainly the loss of life was far greater and extremely tragic, but people dying from natural disasters is altogether different from people plotting and carrying out the murder of thousands of other people. There’s the obvious moral evil that differentiates the two disasters (the tsunami containing no moral component), making it (again, in my opinion) a bad comparison.
September 1st, 2009 | 4:02 pm
For what it’s worth, the ad has surprised even the World Wildlife Fund people, and they’re condemning it too. NBC reports that the ad “is credited to agency DDB Brasil for WWF-Brazil — but ran in Israel, of all places. A representative for the US headquarters of WWF said they had been unaware of the offensive poster until today.”
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Tsunami-Ad-is-Sept-11-Dis-56620417.html
September 1st, 2009 | 4:13 pm
Looks like they are taking their cues from PETA. It doesn’t have to make sense it just has to be silly enough or offensive enough to garner excessive amounts of free advertising through the MSM and/or the internet. There are enough people who can’t think past their own noses out there who will find it “compelling” and hand over their money that any negative effects will be negligible.
September 1st, 2009 | 4:14 pm
That’s disgusting, disrespectful, and should be withdrawn by WWF immediately.
September 1st, 2009 | 4:27 pm
Vince McMahon has gone too far this time.
September 1st, 2009 | 6:17 pm
How uncaring and cruel of WWF to trivialize the horrendous nature of 911. They’ll see no money from me. I’d say the Earth is powerful enough to protect itself. They’re too small and insignificant to make a difference, anyway.
September 1st, 2009 | 8:20 pm
“Tasteless or powerful? What’s your verdict?”
Just one word: meh.
September 2nd, 2009 | 11:02 am
Outright stupid – lame – disrespectful.
September 2nd, 2009 | 11:38 am
Advertisement has a very negative impact. Thought it tasteless to advertise for a day which affected many people in a sad way.
September 3rd, 2009 | 3:50 am
“I have a visceral reaction of disgust whenever I see this ad by the World Wildlife Fund, though I can’t exactly explain why.”
Because it trivializes terrorism in general, trivializes those who died during 9/11 (and thereby is deeply insulting to survivors and families), implies that if we don’t “take care of the planet” we’ll have more tsunamis (which are caused by earthquakes, generally, I didn’t know we caused earthquakes now), and implies that environmental concerns *must* take precedent over terrorism and its numerous associated issues (religious fanaticism, US policies, etc. and so on) or there will be more deaths due to natural disasters, and it will be our fault.
I suppose they could have put out an ad that said something like the black plague (obviously caused by mother nature) killed more than the holocaust, but that may be been a bit much even for the eco-nutjobs at the WWF.
September 3rd, 2009 | 3:23 pm
mmm… very good i admit it struke me at the first side but after that benneton commercials popt in my head. This shouts to give a reaction! I am against any form of anger. So what about the innocent victims in quantanimo. But ok, before I get the hole of the USA on my back or even the UN. The reaction bad or good it stikes in your head not with glue but with a paperclip. The edge and beond. That is the area we have reached. Back to the crusads. I hope someone saves us from the crises wich started where? Sorry guys love is all you need and redemption the best way to come together. And most of all I love the world in general. So peace no war. Professionaly a good stunt.
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