The Barnardo’s advertising campaign was banned in the year of 2003 because of some of the pictures which were published on the advertisements in the united kingdom, The pictures which were published by Barnardo’s were placed onto the adverts that the charity had spread over the united kingdom. The pictures were published in a way that they were highlighting key elements of poverty in the world at its present time; the images were taken of babies which were newborns straight into a life of poverty and such with no opportunities.
“In my opinion the advertising campaign which was endorsed by Barnardo’s was too revealing, horrifying and shameful”, The idea of babies who have been born into poverty was a very good idea to do an advertising campaign about, to try and end poverty across the world, but the images were very disturbing and the idea of using scare tactics for the potential donations in the U.K, was abused a little too much for the citizens of the U.K to take on board, which three months later saw the advertising campaign banned.
An image used by Barnardo’s in the advertising campaign revealed a newborn baby with a cockroach climbing out of the babies’ mouth. This scare tactic was considerably abused by the photographer that Barnardo’s hired for the campaign.
The citizens of the U.K were to socked at the images for them to notice what the message of the image was either for and what it contained within it.
Images in the advertising campaign contained objects like: a syringe to signify drug abuse, a bottle of methylated spirits to signify alcohol abuse and a cockroach to signify poor living conditions. My opinion of the objects that were chosen and what they appose to represent in advertising campaign is thought to be wrong choices and were not thought through by Barnardo’s or the photographer to signify poverty in the U.K. The syringe that signified drug use in poverty was a bad choice, for the fact that it is not always poor families that strive in the life of poverty to turn to drug abuse in the citizens of the world, The rich society in the world have just as much to do with drug abuse and drug related circumstances as the poorer society in the world, this also applies to the bottle of methylated spirits which was chosen to signify alcohol abuse in the campaigns launched. The only object that applies just to the poorer society of the world is the cockroach which signifies poor living conditions across the world.
But still, the way in which the cockroach was used in the images which were published pushed the potential donators away from reading the advertisements in the campaign. If I were to of chosen in the advertisement with the cockroach what the message and what was highlighted in the image the cockroach would have been beside the newborn baby, using the cockroach next to the baby would have given a similar if not better approach to the donators of the U.K, The image would have been softer than the cockroach leaving a babies mouth in the image and make it more bearable for the people of who it offended, if that were the case then the campaign would have been successful in the image at grabbing the attention of potential donators and helping them to understand more about the point of view that Barnardo’s were coming from.
“1. What did Barnardo’s think the adverts will achieve?
The adverts were part of Barnardo’s campaign in 2003 on child poverty. The one key role of these adverts is to deliver the message across the nations that children growing up in poverty are robbed of their future.
These hard-hitting images will cut through the prejudice and apathy that we know exists, and engage with the target audiences and drive them towards supporting Barnardo’s vital work. We want the adverts to provoke debate surrounding child poverty and establish this issue as significant.
Finally, these adverts were to continue to build the position of Barnardo’s as a modern, relevant and deserving charity to maximise our potential for raising funds and influencing social policy for children.”
“2. Do you expect every child to be born with a silver spoon?
The concept behind the silver spoon campaign refers to a proverb “born with a silver spoon in your mouth” meaning to be born into life of opportunity and prosperity.
Barnardo’s is using this metaphor within the advertising to make the point that not all children are born with the same opportunities or aspirations for the future. Children born into poverty are more likely to have a life that stays hard and a future of homelessness, substance misuse or crime.
