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Knackwurst
   
   
      
 
Since: 23.1.02
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|  #1 Posted on 8.10.05 1520.49 | Instant Rating: 4.61 | Unicef has a new and exciting ad campaign! (telegraph.co.uk)
Unicef bombs the Smurfs in fund-raising campaign for ex-child soldiers
By David Rennie in Brussels
(Filed: 08/10/2005)
The people of Belgium have been left reeling by the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes.
The short but chilling film is the work of Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, and is to be broadcast on national television next week as a campaign advertisement.
...
The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom- shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky.
Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs.
The final frame bears the message: "Don't let war affect the lives of children."
I want to meet the Ad wizard who thought this up, GOT IT APPROVED, and shake their hand. It's genius. The disturbed and twisted kind of genius, but genius just the same.
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| #2 Posted on 8.10.05 1952.39 | Instant Rating: 8.81 | If anyone stumbles across a video of this, save it to your hard drive and let me know - I need this.
Ignorance is bliss for you, hell for me. | cowbob
Chaurice
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| #3 Posted on 8.10.05 2125.39 |
Click on "Campagne voor oorlogskinderen" for a streamed news story that features a bit of the un-Smurfiness. It was a bit slow when I tried, but you'll get the gist of it.
http://www.vrtnieuws.net/nieuwsnet_master/versie2/nieuws/details/051004Unicef/index.shtml#
"A spork, a crash helmet, and a dream..." | Lise
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| #4 Posted on 9.10.05 0203.54 | Instant Rating: 9.38 | warning: first half of video has maimed child soldiers (I assume) in a hospital...
I found what (badly synched) clip there was of the smurf bombing to be way more disturbing than I thought I would. It kinda felt that someone was trying to attack MY childhood by adding something completely wrong to something I have only fluffy sedate memories of. I suppose that's the point.
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Knackwurst
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| #5 Posted on 10.10.05 1858.53 | Instant Rating: 2.74 | Call my a sick individual, but I'm not feeling the way I SHOULD be feeling, after watching that.
I thought it was kinda funny, in a disturbing way.
Probably because I now have a love/hate relationship about the Smurfs. I wonder what episodes would be like if characters from other shows appeared in them, like what would a Smurfs episode be like if it was crossed over with G.I.Joe.
Now I know. (...and knowing is half the battle!) | vsp
Andouille
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| #6 Posted on 11.10.05 1032.40 | Instant Rating: 0.00 | A more animated version in French that's less of a slideshow, albeit a little blurry.
Vanilla Ice on stardom: "I had a weekend that lasted a couple of years."
| J Wellington
Chaurice
Since: 27.7.05
From: Columbus, OH
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| #7 Posted on 14.10.05 0958.04 | Instant Rating: 9.00 | For anyone that hasn't seen it yet, CBS News has the commercial available on their site:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/11/world/main933310.shtml | ekedolphin
Scrapple
Since: 12.1.02
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| #8 Posted on 19.10.05 1025.39 | Instant Rating: 2.29 | The radio show I was listening to (I guess it was on NPR) had an interview with the Unicef guy who approved the ad, and they played the commercial-- albeit obviously in audio format only. And... yeah. The audio track plus the still picture at the top of the thread gives me all the information I need to know I don't really wanna see the ad. Pretty much for the same reason I have no interest in seeing movies like Saw or High Tension (though maybe I'm exaggerating slightly). Pretty potent way of getting one's point across, though. Though when was the last time Belgium invaded another country, anyway? Now, show the ad in America, and I guarantee you'll cause controversy. In fact, I wouldn't even be opposed to them airing the commercial here, and maybe getting a few Bush supporters to wake up and go, "Wait a second, there are innocent children in Iraq, too, and no doubt they're being killed." But I'd probably change the channel if I caught a glimpse of it. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself/I am large, I contain multitudes.
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