UNICEF puts blackface on german kids in ad campaign??

[BrazenMuse]

Besides claiming that every single person in "Africa" isn't educated, and doing so in an extremely patronising way, it is also disturbing that this organisation thinks blackfacing kids with mud (!) equals "relating to african children". Also, the kids' statements ignore the existence of millions of african academics and regular people and one again reduces a whole continent to a village of muddy uneducated uncivilized people who need to be educated (probably by any random westerner). This a really sad regression.
Bottom lines of this campaign are: Black = mud = African = uneducated. White = educated. We feel this campaign might do just as much harm as it does any good. You don't collect money for helping people by humiliating and trivializing them first.
Unfortunately, if it was clear to the average German that this is wrong, UNICEF and the advertising agency wouldn't come out with such a campaign.

You have to see this... (http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/59019/#more)

[Terry James]

Whoa!

[chldfknungrnd764]

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p269/chldfknungrnd764/UN1.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p269/chldfknungrnd764/UN2.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p269/chldfknungrnd764/unicef4.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p269/chldfknungrnd764/Unifef203.jpg


Don't they look so damn silly?:wtf:

Looks like "child abuse" to me?

Your donations to foreign relief at work?

That might not be mud, get my drift?

[The Buddy Love Show]

UNICEF Responds


Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We agree -- these advertisements are not appropriate and run against UNICEF's mission. They have been dropped from the UNICEF German National Committee's website and there are no plans to use them in the future. We apologize for any offence caused.

As a UNICEF supporter, you may be interested to know a little more about the German National Committee's campaign to promote child-friendly schools in six African countries. Launched in late 2004, the campaign aims to raise awareness of the fact that nearly half of all children in Africa lack even primary education.

With funds from private donors, 350 schools have been repaired or newly constructed. In addition, several thousand teachers have been trained and school management improved. In total, around 100,000 children and young people have benefited from this campaign since 2004. The right to education for all children is a prerequisite to develop their full potential and a basis for social and economic development.

Again, we apologize for any offence caused.

Sincerely,

Cinthya Oliveira

Program Services

U.S. Fund for UNICEF

www.unicefusa.org

http://aapoliticalpundit.blogspot.com/2007/07/unicef-responds-to-black-face-ads.html

[The Buddy Love Show]

the German units advertisers fucked up big time

obviously they dont hang w too many black folk, we would have raised red flags early in the procees

[simon b]

the German units advertisers fucked up big time

obviously they dont hang w too many black folk, we would have raised red flags early in the procees

That's for damn sure. Shit when I lived there it seemed a good portion of them didn't even like to be friendly with white people from other countries. We used to hang with the Turks, thanks to the mutal dislike they had for us.

[ngeso]

More U.S. reactions.
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/07/19/german-unicef-ad-puts-kids-in-blackface/

[ngeso]

This explanation from UNICEF Germany is ridiculous!



***

UNICEF Germany:

Dear Mr. Dalzine,

Thank you very much for your letter and your comments on the advertisment
for our “Schools for Africa” initiative. Please let me try to explain
context and message of the ad.

The German Committee for UNICEF has started a campaign to promote
child-friendly schools in six African countries in late 2004. This campaign
aims to raise awareness on the fact that nearly half of all children in
Africa lack even primary education.

With funds from private donors, since then 350 schools have been repaired or
newly constructed. In addition, several thousand teachers were trained and
school management improved. In total, some hundred thousand children and
young people have benefitted from this campaign since 2004.

The right to education for all children is a prerequisite to develop their
full potential and a basis for social and economic development. But still
many governments - including the G8-countries - do not stick to their
promise in the so-called “Millennium Declaration” to reach “education for
all” until 2015.

We therefore tried to bring the issue up to the agenda of the G8 summit
which took place in Germany in June this year. One element of our advocacy
work was this ad which was developed pro bono by Jung von Matt.

The idea behind is that children from Germany demonstrate their solidarity
with children in Africa by showing up with a coloured make up. Their message
is: “Children may look different but are equal - we all want to go to
school.” Absolutely no connotation of black children as “dirty children” was
intended.

Before publishing the ad, we had carefully discussed possible
misinterpretations and the agency had also tested public reaction in a
survey in Germany, without receiving negative comments. Neither did we
receive any negative reaction from the German public after publication.

The ad was published in a few high-quality print media like Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung, Spiegel, Die Zeit, Stern, free-of-charge. These media
had never volunteered to publish the ad if they would have expected a
negative connotation. Obviously, the perception of the ad varies by country.

There are no plans to promote the ad further as it was explicitly developed
for the G8 summit. Your remarks have caused us to drop it from our website.

We apologize if you feel irritated by the make up of the children. Please
rest assured that we take your remarks very seriously and will consider them
in any further communication.

Thank you for sharing your comments with us.

With kind regards,

Rudi Tarneden

Press Officer


More UNICEF reactions:
http://blog.derbraunemob.info/english-scandalous-german-unicef-advertising-campaign-please-help/unicef-reactions/

[liL Ray]

oh boy....

the fight is not over!

[BrazenMuse]

Before publishing the ad, we had carefully discussed possible
misinterpretations and the agency had also tested public reaction in a
survey in Germany, without receiving negative comments. Neither did we
receive any negative reaction from the German public after publication.

The ad was published in a few high-quality print media like Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung, Spiegel, Die Zeit, Stern, free-of-charge. These media
had never volunteered to publish the ad if they would have expected a
negative connotation. Obviously, the perception of the ad varies by country.
Since they selected the publications so carefully, which segments of the German public had no negative reaction? Hmmm...call it a variation of "tone deafness"?
Yes...perception of the ad varies...by a number of things, one would imagine...

At least they actually responded in detail, not like certain letters from political offices here...see my response on the Jena 6...

[ngeso]

Actually those are the most prestigious publications on the market. The Frankfurter Allgemeine is Germany's biggest daily, the Zeit and Der Spiegel the biggest Weeklies. All three are squarely aimed at the Bildungselite (i.e. the educated and exposed upper quarter). Those three are my sources of print news.

That's what really scares ME.

[chewie]

it's (almost) unbelievable