Advertising Debacle

If you're a follower of advertising trends and massive design clusterfucks (from now on to be referred to as MDC), and you've had enough of the IKEA Fontgate, you may want to jump ship and board the newest in OMWTFBBQ!?!?! going on over this Brazilian ad for the World Wildlife Federation:

Shocking, huh?

I should preface this by saying: I am an American. I am also a New Yorker. I was here. I get it.

That said: I am also a graphic designer.

I've read a bunch of the comments (read: angry rants) about this ad - some of them just plain stupid and some with intelligent thought. I'm going to come right out and say it: I don't find it offensive or to be in poor taste.

Advertising and design are supposed to be shocking, thought provoking, and inciting. If you're not moved to some sort of reaction, then the designer didn't do their job.

Is it a touchy subject? Of course it is. Should we then avoid it at all costs because it might envoke a heated response? No. Absolutely not.

I think a lot of the issue people are having with the ad is actually in the tagline, which is this:

The focus isn't really September 11th, but the power of nature and our planet. People have argued that the ad should have focused on something like Global Warming and not the Tsunami, because, like 9/11, that would be an issue caused by man. I can understand that argument, but I also wonder if maybe they're missing the point.

The way I interpreted this tag was as making more of a statement on the power of nature versus the power of man. Yes, 9/11 was cause by man and most likely 100% preventable - not so much the case with a tsunami, however, I'm also of the belief that a good 70-80% of the things wrong with our planet are also being cause by man and probably in the same percentile for having been preventable (note: they're mostly no longer preventable - I do not believe anything or anyone can "save the planet" at this point, but at some point, they would have been), so the message I took from this was more along the lines of that old saying about a woman scorned - hell hath no fury like that of Mother Nature. If we don't respect and preserve the planet, she'll kill us - pure and simple - and nature has a greater extendible fist than mankind. We can only wipe out but a few, whereas she can take us all in one shot. Somehow, in this context, the ad makes sense to me - but maybe that's just me.

If the intent was to emphasize preventable tragedies, then yes, the written message could have been stronger - perhaps focusing on climate control or something that does have a direct link to our impact on the planet, rather than on the Tsunami (though there have been studies done on how human beings do impact the shifting of tectonic plates, none of the theories have been 100% conclusive).

The image itself is actually very well done - it's shocking, upsetting, provacative - pretty much things you'd want from an ad like this. It isn't glorifying a tragedy or saying September 11th wasn't horrible - it's saying that was horrible, and so is this.

I don't know. Maybe I've seen enough startling imagery in my career to make me immune to these things - or to have caused me to look at them from a rational perspective rather than emotional. I realize that analyzing as a designer is far different from doing so as a non-designer. That's not to say it doesn't bring out an emotional response from me, it does, but it's definitely not one of disgust and outrage towards those who created the piece.

FYI - the WWF has condemned the ad, saying they were unaware of its creation and publication, and rejected the concept entirely. The company responsible for the ad, the Brazilian subsidiary of DDB, has also issued an apology, stating that the ad never should have run to begin with.

It has also been revealed that there was a commercial created to accompany the ad, though it has since been pulled from YouTube and anyplace online we it may have been viewed. The print ad did win an award for public service from One Club, however, it has since been pulled from the site and no response has been given yet for why it was chosen.

I'm curious - what are your thoughts on the topic?