Video: Smurfs carpetbombed in UNICEF fundraising ad: An Example of Manipulative Marketing

Advertising is often used to mis-represent facts and retroactively clean up a tarnished history, an example of this is an advertising campaign by UNICEF which was run in Belgium in 2005 using the cartoon characters "The Smurfs" in an effort to raise money for its activities in African countries.

This is the advertisement, contains disturbing cartoon violence, please caution.


CBS article commenting on this ad campaign
BBC softball article commenting on this campaign

What exactly is a Smurf?
A popular comic book and cartoon creation of Pierre Culliford their first appearance was in a comic strip in October 23, 1958, the cartoon series started in 1981 in the United States and thus all Americans reared during the Reagan Era [1980 - 1988-ish] are possibly very familiar with the imagery.

The ad is in Belgian but the closing text is
"don't let war destroy the children's world."

This ad is a classic example of Shock advertising:
"Shock advertising is a type of advertising generally regarded as one that “deliberately, rather than inadvertently, startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals.”

This form of advertising is often controversial, disturbing, explicit and crass, and may entail bold and provocative political messages that challenge the public’s conventional understanding of the social order. This form of advertising may not only offend but can also frighten as well, using scare tactics and elements of fear to sell a product or deliver a public service message, making a "high impact."

There are social scientists, psychiatrists, media scholars, and child and family advocates who fear that overexposure to shock advertising will result in a public that is “desensitized” to advertisements that employ shock tactics, particularly those with overtly sexual and violent images."

The imagery in the ad presents a dialectical argument in a subliminal sense, (two sides are presented, thesis, antithesis which leads to synthesis/new normal)you are presented with a representation of innocence/good[that you recognize personally from childhood memories](thesis), then one of guilt/evil [remorseless killing of smurfs and reportedly smurfette (the only female)](antithesis), then a statement- don't LET war destroy the children's world,

So I ask, what follows? What is the Synthesis? UNICEF, i guess
If you do not give money to UNICEF you are LETTING war destroy the children's world and are no better than whoever is bombing them, giving you feelings of guilt which can only be quelled by money. Thus through UNICEF guilt free living is achievable through monetary exchange. :) and poof, New Normal, Synthesis

This advertisement is pure mental manipulation, an idyllic, Utopian image taken from what is aimed at the childhood of the viewer,(commercial was run after 9pm for adult audiences in Belgium) then it switches abruptly to rampant cartoon genocide by an unknown foe with no context other than, "don't let war destroy the children's world."

Which war, who's children, where, and why is it ok to blast familiar cartoon characters to bits for world peace and fundraising? Perhaps I am reading too much into this, perhaps I am asking why does this feel like a shakedown so people will feel guilty about poor little children in a far away land with a multimillion dollar ad campaign which cant think of a better way to advocate for them other than killing brainy smurf......
War is Peace perhaps?

What does this ad actually say?
Here is a happy village, watch them get slaughtered, give us money?

The ad does not even say, the only way to stop it is if we ( UN ) were in control of everyone, or that the Smurfs and probably Gargamel (the only known enemy of the smurfs) who is bombing them are probably both signatories to the UN meaning probably the blue helmeted UN troops often called "smurfs" will be sent in to watch the refugee Smurfs get wiped out like the UN did in Rwanda

Video About the Rwandan Genocide, please caution.


The BBC penned an article about this ad, it states that
"Unicef's Belgian campaign is focused on Sudan, as well as the two former African colonies of Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. "

But not Rwanda, for obvious reasons, the children of Rwanda had Smurf Style Protection when what they needed was the absence of a foreign body which the people falsely believed was there to help, not a benevolent organization to peacefully maintain the slaughter and usher in a new order of things from the rubble

See Capacity-Building in Conflict Management (United Nations Website)

One detail that is not mentioned often about the genocide is that every Rwandan citizen was required to carry a National Identity Card [sound familiar] which stated their ethnicity, this practice had been in place since colonialization. When the violence which was encouraged by the officials went into full swing, the identity cards became death certificates. See article about colonial division in Rwanda(Conflict Creation)

Belgium the object of this cartoon massacre ad campaign lost 10 peacekeeping soldiers to torture & death during the Rwandan Genocide

Link to detailed article about the Rwandan Genocide, includes reference to the Belgian peacekeepers

In April 1994, amid ever-increasing prospects of violence, Rwandan President Habyalimana and Burundi's new President, Cyprien Ntaryamira, held several peace meetings with Tutsi rebels. On April 6, while returning from a meeting in Tanzania, a small jet carrying the two presidents was shot down by ground-fired missiles as it approached Rwanda's airport at Kigali. Immediately after their deaths, Rwanda plunged into political violence as Hutu extremists began targeting prominent opposition figures that were on their death-lists, including moderate Hutu politicians and Tutsi leaders.

The killings then spread throughout the countryside as Hutu militia, armed with machetes, clubs, guns and grenades, began indiscriminately killing Tutsi civilians. All individuals in Rwanda carried identification cards specifying their ethnic background, a practice left over from colonial days. These 'tribal cards' now meant the difference between life and death.

Amid the onslaught, the small U.N. peacekeeping force was overwhelmed as terrified Tutsi families and moderate politicians sought protection.

genocide in Rwanda

Among the peacekeepers were ten soldiers from Belgium who were captured by the Hutu's, tortured and murdered. As a result, the United States, France, Belgium, and Italy all began evacuating their own personnel from Rwanda.

However, no effort was made to evacuate Tutsi civilians or Hutu moderates. Instead, they were left behind entirely at the mercy of the avenging Hutu.

Back at U.N headquarters in New York, the killings were initially categorized as a breakdown in the cease-fire between the Tutsi and Hutu. Throughout the massacre, both the U.N. and the U.S. carefully refrained from labeling the killings as genocide, which would have necessitated some kind of emergency intervention.

On April 21, the Red Cross estimated that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi had already been massacred since April 6 - an extraordinary rate of killing.

The U.N. Security Council responded to the worsening crisis by voting unanimously to abandon Rwanda. The remainders of U.N. peacekeeping troops were pulled out, leaving behind an only tiny force of about 200 soldiers for the entire country.


U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright, defending a U.S.-inspired delay in the dispatch of almost 5,000 additional peacekeeping troops to Rwanda, told Congress on Tuesday that "sending a U.N. force into the maelstrom of Rwanda without a sound plan of operations would be folly."


Article Excerpt: From The Independent.co.uk

The United Nations was reeling yesterday after the release of a critical report into its failure to prevent the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that left 800,000 people dead - almost one tenth of the country's population.

The document, compiled by an independent Commission of Inquiry headed by Ingvar Carlsson, the former Swedish Prime Minister, amounts to an astonishing indictment of the UN's response to the crisis. It identifies individuals most closely associated with the serial mistakes and misjudgements, including the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

The slaughter, which took place over about 100 days and did not even spare those who sought sanctuary in churches and missions, "will forever be remembered as one of the most abhorrent events of the 20th century", the document begins. "The international community did not prevent the genocide, nor did it stop the killing once it had begun."


Conclusion
The overall point of this post is that it isn't that the UN is "ineffective" "useless" "powerless", the problem is that the United Nations on its face is an organization that needs conflicts in order to survive, and the more conflict there is in the world or the less the united the nations of the world are, the more powerful the United Nations will become. The UN is its most powerful AFTER a nation has fallen when a country is healthy, happy and strong the UN is seen as an un-elected body of technocrats who challenge the authority of your home country. Only after a conflict has run its course with does the UN show up to offer food and water to the survivors.

Those who argue in support of the united nations are arguing for the destruction of the sovereignty of their own nations because the only way the united nations, will ever have authority is if it has authority over your leaders which you elected. Which would give it power and authority over you. It will also need its own military force of global soldiers who will come into your community.

Truly ponder what it would be like to have Japanese, or Korean, or Chinese or Bolivian troops, who dont speak your language patrolling your streets to quell "gang violence" under the authority of the secretery general, not in the "inner city" where your government has plenty of staff, but your little town of Tulsa, Oklahoma or Silver Spring, Maryland to "secure infrastructure" that is what its like to live in Congo or Columbia and have some foreigners show up and your every day life has to change AGAIN before these guys will go away. Do you really think that what has been happening in the "third world" isnt a trial run? Right now what was done to African and Southeast Asian countries one by one with banks are happening here, the security infrastructure is being put into place now.



Is your "race" on your identity card?
mine isnt- whew!

This is why the UN is worthless, because NOBODY anywhere on the planet wants this scam, ever since World War 2, the UN, has been at the epicenter of conflicts, injecting its virus like peons into the daily lives of people. Perhaps the people of Belgum and those of the rest of the world want to find some other way to help bring peace to the children of the world that does not involve the United Nations which is simply The League of Nations which nobody wanted either

Semi Official League of Nations Symbol


Finally, in 1939, a semi-official emblem emerged: two five-pointed stars within a blue pentagon. The pentagon and the five-pointed stars were supposed to symbolize the five continents and the five races of mankind. In a bow on top and at the bottom, the flag had the names in English (League of Nations) and French (Société des Nations). This flag was used on the building of the New York World's Fair in 1939 and 1940.[28]

World Bank Creation
The World Bank was formally established on December 27, 1945, following the ratification of the Bretton Woods agreement. The concept was originally conceived in July 1944 at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference.

Colonial Division In Rwanda
In 1931, an ethnic identity was officially mandated and administrative documents systematically detailed each person's "ethnicity," just as Jewish identity would be specified a few years later in Germany. Each Rwandan had an ethnic identity card. The Belgians considered the Tutsis to be the superior race and systematically imposed their authority over the Hutus across the colonial administration and the access to education, engendering great frustration among the other Rwandans.

So how do we address the problems In countries like Rwanda?
Im not sure, but i know one thing, any American Citizen or elected official who was in a position at the time to raise awareness about what was going on, and choose not to do so, should be FIRED. A life in Rwanda is no different than one in Michigan, and if they didnt lift a finger to help them over there, they are USELESS and when a crisis hits home they will run away like the UN did to the people in Rwanda.

Eugenics: Margret Sanger

By LadyCaritas
Margaret Sanger surrounded by supporters,
Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-105460

Those vast, complex, interrelated organizations aiming to control and to diminish the spread of misery and destitution and all the menacing evils that spring out of this sinisterly fertile soil, are the surest sign that our civilization has bred, is breeding and is perpetuating constantly increasing numbers of defectives, delinquents and dependents.

My criticism, therefore, is not directed at the ``failure'' of philanthropy, but rather at its success. These dangers inherent in the very idea of humanitarianism and altruism, dangers which have to-day produced their full harvest of human waste, of inequality and inefficiency, were fully recognized in the last century at the moment when such ideas were first put into practice. Readers of Huxley's attack on the Salvation Army will recall his penetrating and stimulating condemnation of the debauch of sentimentalism which expressed itself in so uncontrolled a fashion in the Victorian era.

Excerpt from her book: The pivot of civilization (1922)
Quote source
Full Text of book found at Project Gutenberg

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