War Child: Raising Eyebrows And Awareness
Written by Catherine Kustanczy
Friday, 30 January 2009 15:17
Of course, the ads weren’t real, but the ironic detachment dormant in them both made the underlying issue no less real. War Child Canada’s award-winning series of advertisements raised eyebrows and stirred up controversy even as they lead to greater awareness and discussion of the issue of child soldiers worldwide. Created with the widely-lauded, Toronto-based John street advertising agency, the campaign was notable for its lack of sentimentality and straight-faced pleas for aid.
“The Youtube comments are interesting, to put it mildly,” says James Topham, Director of Marketing for War Child Canada, referring to the reaction the videos received. “A lot of people didn’t fully understand the irony or believe it was true. There were equals amounts of people who countered that fairly abruptly, but generally, we haven’t had any complaints. We have people saying it’s amazing, though it has caused a few raised eyebrows.”
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Topham is a passionate and dedicated speaker who is deeply informed on the twin issues of child soldiering and exploitation. He’s also keenly aware of the reaction the ads have provoked. Originally working with the War Child team in the UK, he feels it’s necessary “to make your voice heard amongst increasing amounts of chatter. We really don’t do the traditional guilt-trip charity stuff you see, particularly at Christmas with the crying babies and such –we find that exploitative.” An estimated 300,000 children worldwide are currently being used as soldiers. They are often kidnapped, abused, and plied with drugs and alcohol. They’re also frequently forced to perform horrifying acts of initiation involving torture and maiming. With children being used as soldiers in roughly 19 current conflicts, it’s surprising more coverage hasn’t been given to the issue, and yet things are beginning to change. Lately, the use of child soldiers has become more prominent with the trial of Congolese warlord Congo warlord Thomas Lubanga at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Lubanga is accused of recruiting hundreds of children into his militia and sending them to fight and die in brutal conflicts in eastern Congo between 2002 and 2003. An unnamed boy told the Court that at the age of ten, he was taken as he made his way home from school in the town of Fataki, eastern Congo. The boy said soldiers who seized him and his friends were fighters from Lubanga’s Union of Congolese Patriots. The boy’s identity was protected out of fear of retribution. |
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It’s cases like these that rarely make headlines outside of the countries in which they’re based, which was part of the reason War Child decided to engage in such a controversial advertising strategy. While commonly used throughout the United Kingdom, Topham says ironic ads for non-profit agencies don’t always translate here.
“There is a problem with that kind of ironic double-edged thing,” he says, “which perhaps is a more British thing. I know the cliché is that Americans don’t understand irony –but some reactions suggest that (cliché) isn’t so far off. It’s not all Americans, but there is a sector that didn’t get it at all –moreso than (in) Canada, where it was understood.”
The purpose of “Camp Okutta,” the fictional training camp portrayed in ad campaigns two years ago, was to raise awareness and money, explains Topham. “Camp Okutta was like a short sharp shock kind of campaign. It was very successful so the idea was to do something like a development from that.” The current campaign, by contrast, is about getting people “more actively involved –to participate in it. It’s more than just giving us ten dollars and walking away.”
Topham points to the Help Child Soldiers website (www.helpchildsoldiers.com), which features a petition detailing Canada’s involvement in international development. “We give .28% of our Gross National Index to international development, whereas the target, which Canada signed up to, is .7%. Nearly every other developing country, apart from us, has got there. It’s kind of embarrassing.” Topham says the online petition is one way for people to educate themselves about the role government can play in helping to wipe out the use of child soldiers. “ They can sign up, spread word themselves, download the poster, stencil it as well, link to our site. There are ways they can get more involved.” Those ways include signing up to the War Child database for updates, posting and sharing photos, organizing events, volunteering, and for students, spreading the word through their school.
“We wouldn’t describe ourselves as trailblazers,” he continues, “we don’t have an ad budget for everything we do, everything is PSA (public service announcement) time. We don’t pay for it, and we’re not World Vision (the well-known Christian aid and advocacy organization) so we have to use new media as a way of getting through. There’s a serious message, that frankly, we’re not doing enough to stop child soldiers. I don’t’ think it’s a joke for a joke’s sake, otherwise we wouldn’t do it –isn’t very funny. In fact, it’s just disturbing.”
For more information, go to www.helpchildsoldiers.com and www.warchild.ca.
For information about the award-winning Camp Okutta ads, go to http://cassies.ca/winners/2008Winners.
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