Charities, journalism and PR

Adam Westbrook was one of a number of bloggers who followed up on duckrabbit’s post on MSF’s new cinema advert with a much wider analysis of how charities communicate:

‘At the heart of this lies the important question of how charities choose to spread their word. The public generally are now far less trusting of spin and PR. We want true stories, and we want them as gritty as the real world is. But we also want balance – and we recognise a third-world-cliche when we see it.’

Here on duckrabbit Matty C posed this question:

‘Let me ask you something. You’re the director of Human Rights Watch. I’m some random Nathan Barley-type from a Soho ad agency. I pitch you a campaign that involves showing a re-enaction of a child being tortured – on screen. I’m also armed with a big wad of data that suggests such a campaign would triple HRW’s donation income in the forthcoming financial year.

Would you even consider green lighting that project?‘

Sadly, truthfully for many the answer is yes. The end justifies the means.

If you watch the first 45 seconds of this important film by HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, you’ll see that nothing beats real footage to bring home a message. Put some text on this and you’ve got one hell of an advert.

You don’t have to see or hear human suffering and misery to be persuaded that something awful is going on, that something needs to be done, that I should support organizations who can help stop these war crimes: