(UPDATE: Mhm, just as I suspected – not only did these fools make the video, they submitted it to Cannes. I think a wise man named Charlie Brown said it best: good grief.)

Just when I ask how can we make people aware of certain environmental issues without scare tactics and tirades, this comes across my desk (thanks to Fabian):

(Video from HuffingtonPost.com)

Overlooking whatever truth may be in this video, I can’t help but wonder: what were DDB Brasil and WWF thinking? Hyperbolizing (is that a word?) a man-made tragedy to illustrate the power of a devastating natural disaster is just a bad idea . And saying, “No, we didn’t approve that!” and, “Stop running that, now!” and, “We’d have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids!”  is a load of crap. They knew that mess was approved. If you’ve ever worked in the ad world in any capacity, especially on the creative side, you know that things go through so many approvals and changes, not to mention that stuff costs money. It’s a wonder anything actually gets published or broadcast. Advertising Age has the run down of how it went down, including Keith Olbermann’s calling out of everyone involved on his “Worst Person in the World” segment.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Bad Idea, Say What?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.