You may have seen this on other blogs in the last day or so, a print ad apparently for the WWF out of Brazil. It is beyond tasteless. I wasn’t going to comment on it, but then our tipline made it clear that a video spot was also produced.
The caption in the upper right reads: “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.” The ad first starting becoming well known when it won the best of 2009 award at www.oneclub.org, which apparently promotes excellence in advertising. (UPDATE: it appears the ad award has been removed from this website but here is a screencap.)
But World Wildlife Fund is rejecting the ad, saying it was released without authorization by the Brazilian Ad agency DDB Brazil (www.ddb.com).
WWF condemned it, saying it was “categorically not solicited nor endorsed” by the organization. Looking at their main website though, http://www.panda.org/ you’d never know they are condemning this ad. The other WWF website does mention it here. Now according to Adfreak, they are accepting “joint blame” for the print ad.
But given the existence of this video, it appears they approved at least a production budget. The video is professionally done with top of the line CGI. It’s not some “rogue” that did this on a shoestring budget.
The video spot showing 2 planes flying into the twin towers, followed by even more, is probably the most tasteless and stupid environmental advertisement I’ve ever seen. If the goal was to shock people, it worked. But I doubt the shock effect is positive for WWF. What it does is piss people off.
Watch the video and see what I mean.
UPDATE: it appears DDB/WWF has made a DMCA complaint with YouTube. I expect DeSmog Blog’s Kevin Grandia and Climate Progress’ Joe Romm to express shock and outrage any minute now.
Alternate source to the video can be found here. http://creativity-online.com/work/wwf-tsunami-%28tvc%29/17193
In my opinion, it boggles the mind that anyone or any organization could be so dense as to not predict the public reaction to such a print ad, much less a video. I don’t care how noble you think your cause is, this hijacking of an American tragedy for earth awareness, is not only callous and insulting to the thousands of families affected by this tragedy, but it is probably the single most disgusting and stupid application of eco advertising I’ve ever witnessed.
The WWF initial “denial” of association with this ad just isn’t credible and is falling apart. Have you no shame?
From Hot Air:
WWF is finally admitting that they did play some role in approving the print spot, issuing a joint statement with the ad agency, DDB, that “the inexperience of some professionals on both sides” is to blame. And yet:
Sergio Valente, president of DDB Brasil, said the ad was presented to the WWF in Brazil in December 2008 and approved; it then ran once in a small local paper.
“When I saw it, I said, ‘Stop running that ad,’” Mr. Valente said…
A DDB Brasil spokesperson in Sao Paulo said a video version of the ad being circulated on the internet was not done or authorized by the agency or the client. She said DDB execs first saw the video, which features slightly different copy, on the internet and don’t know who created it.
Really? So some wily amateur video producer out there happened to stumble across a print ad that only ran once in South America and was so taken with it that he churned out a slick animated version on his own dime? Humor me for a moment and assume that this is, in fact, the handiwork of DDB. If so, exactly how many “inexperienced professionals” contributed to — and approved — the spot?
This spot comes from an ad agency employed by the same people that say “We Need a New Global Climate Deal“. Good luck with that, with this revelation, you’ve just committed global stupicide.
h/t to WUWT reader Corey
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The video spot showing 2 planes flying into the twin towers, followed by even more, is probably the most tasteless and stupid environmental advertisement I’ve ever seen.
Probably?
That is like saying communism was probably bad.
REPLY: You’re right, what was I thinking? Fixed. -A
What I find most troubling about this is that WWF released a “report”/”study” /”press release” on sea level rise today that was picked up by an array of MSM outlets:
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5812AJ20090902
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17726-has-runaway-arctic-warming-already-begun.html
http://news.google.com/news/search?ned=us&hl=en&q=WWF+Sea+level
This is a good example of how science is being perverted, because seemingly reputable mainstream media outlets are presenting advocacy groups’ press releases as scientific findings/fact. It is obvious that WWF is an biased advocacy organization and the Mainstream Media should treat their press releases as such. I wonder if DDB had a hand in writing both of today’s press releases:
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2009/09/911-was-nothing-according-to-new-wwf-ad.html
Never mind the callousness! What about the blatant stupidity!? What does a tsunami have to do with human actions other than being a victim of a totally natural event?
Wow….nothing is sacred anymore. Is there any depth people will not go to capitalize on tragedy to advance their agenda???
Trouble is…if this is them….then they are alienating the very people they could be drawing [obviously hence my name I am for wildlife conservation].
But this type of sludge should never see the light of day.
Politics soils the pants of and ruins every and any good cause.
For shame!!
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
WWF acronym should be changed to…. [snip]
What does a tsunami have to do with anything man has done or not done?
Besides, I live in downtown New York and I consider this to be quite beyond the palatinate.
What was the WWF going to do about the Indonesian tsunami?
Its like, “send us money and we will keep the powerful Earth from causing tsunamis”?
Does the WWF protect people from natural disasters, I thought they were interested in animals. Maybe they can help save a few animals from natural disasters but why bring up the point that 260,000 people died then.
Throw in 9/11 and it is just, overall, a rather awkward/dense/dumb/beyond dumb set of connections to make.
Yes, the planet is brutally powerful. This is why it doesn’t care what humans (who occupy such a small fraction of the planet’s surface) do during their short time on Earth. It will behave as it wishes.
Dead on, Mark. How is a tsunami a result of human action?
Right on Schedule the AGWers play their “Look at me I’m a fringe group of radical environmentalists” card to derail their 15 minutes of “social relevance”, talk of the town and favorite fund-raising cause status after riding into the mainstream on the back of the UN and MSM, and at their own hand they start the move back to the fringe where they belong. Such is the fate of all fanatics.
They will stop being the topic du jour and become again the cocktail joke of the month while MSM abandons them and issues claims that they were “mislead”, the articles are already starting to turn except op-eds from the faithful.
The attack on the World Trade Towers on September 11th was not a ‘tragedy’.
It was an act of unmitigated evil, perpetrated by vicious mass murderers, Islamist fanatics.
The tsunami was a tragedy, beyond human ken or blame.
The Earth has great power, but it is not evil.
/Mr Lynn
I had an old client.He was a firefighter in New Jersey.From across the river he saw the towers hit.Then the Bell rang.I wil never,ever give to the WWF in good times and bad but I’ll get this out too.I will send my old client a copy-if he’s still alive.COPD and all that from the smoke and debris…
Never Forget.Never…
A sign of desperation that appears certain to blowback in the perpetrator’s faces.
The known universe is serene, but broken by periods of intense calamity.
There are many ways this has been expressed. Mostly in science films where you have researchers out in the field digging through sites and rock formations, etc.
Preying on primal fears has become a plaything of warmist agenda.
They aren’t the first to do this, but they have taken it to the limits.
Like their reasoning, which does not follow through to the consequences of that which they propose as their final solution, so it is with this video.
It is very obvious they are in a big hurry.
We must act quickly.
What is the moral equivalence of a Tsunami and Islamofascism? Answer – Nothing!
Cheers
Michael
Now anthropogenic global warming / man made climate change / jargon of the day has a hand on undersea volcanic activities? That is brilliant.
WWLF = DESERVES $00.00 Cash donations for 2009/2010.
AFTER a GROVELING apology, delivered on their knees, they could be allowed to solicite funds in the USA again, in say.. 2100.
Anthropogenic tsunamis blamed on the heavy footsteps of Indonesians I suppose. I’ve seen everything now.
Pointless and offensive. I still can’t figure out why 9/11 and the 2005 tsunami are related in their minds.
Ah heck, just delete my previous message. I am too angry to type anything usefull, even if I do understand their “intent.”
U.S. Army for 20 years…
One problem with these people that are so far “out there” is they assume they are “average” and everyone else thinks just like them. When they get something like this, they think it is “like, totally awesome” and assume that everyone else will think so to. And so when they put it out, they are shocked that people find it “like, totally repulsive and stuff”.
Most Americans are decent people who were raised with some modicum of “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” and so things like this have been allowed to go on unchallenged. People figure it is some sort of fad and it will pass. But this is not passing and these people are costing us billions of dollars with their nonsense. Our children are being indoctrinated with various hypotheses and model results it in schools as if they are facts. Inconvenient Truth was shown in my kids’ elementary school.
We can’t let this idiocy to continue unchallenged. It is time to speak up and stand up to these people. It has to stop, it is insanity and we are being robbed.
Remaining silent at this point is a disservice to our country, our children, and their children.
I won’t believe this was “not done or authorized by the agency” until the DDB and the WWF sue the daylights out of the guilty party—whoever that could be. But even then both parties could set up a fake guilty party and sue them just to feign justice. And apparently, judging by this video, that wouldn’t be beyond them to undertake.
There are some strange minds involved in environmentalism—‘a tree is known by its fruits’.
Might I translate the message from the Vile to the English language. It says:
“Give us money. We need the salaries and boondoggles”.
Arww come on… Mr. Moderator… I thought my play on acronymns between WWF and the snipped — is not all that bad. But, OK….understood. This is your blog.
Regardless….that is not the main point here: If this video is authentic, then individuals need to be held accountable for using “funds” [from private donations no doubt] to produce such rubbish.
Again…people who capitalize on tragedies to advance their political agenda, should never be given the chance to ever bring it to the light of day.
May all of the grieving parties of both tragedies know [when unintentionally stumbling upon this WWF garbage] that some people, many people, in this world, simply respect the solemnity of the events, and give their respects to the souls that perished. End of story.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
There was immediate help from America, and other places around the world, sent to Indonesia in less than 24 hours—without the assistance of the WWF. And it was sent to people, not animals. I don’t get what their point is.
It could be that there are people in the WWF that have ill feelings toward America and that is the point. They could be feeling that America cared about 9/11—something that happened to America—but not the tsunami victims—something that didn’t happen to America.
I’m wondering just how much help from the WWF was sent to tsunami victims?
But this video is endemic of a deeper, more systemic problem….the one Crosspatch and RBateman is speaking of in their posts above.
An Inconvenient Truth shown at a public school??????
Yes. We must act quickly.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA