Harry’s Place

The blood splatter idea is taken from one of those awful antiwar posters.

I agree with your comments on Darfur

I disagree with your comments on the advert

This is a good advert. First of all, it makes its core message very clear. Secondly, it encourages you to text to Amnesty. The texting will make Amnesty money, I expect. More importantly, it is a method to send information to people who want to know more.

So it works brilliantly on two levels. It makes a short punchy point about the fact of the crisis, without lots of distracting text. It also allows a bus passenger to find out more about the nature of the issue, by using their phone.

Great stuff.

“The blood splatter idea is taken from one of those awful antiwar posters.”

Yes, that was my first thought too.

STWC: “No to Foreign Intervention”
Amnesty: “Yes to Foreign Intervention”

Three cheers for Amnesty!

“So it works brilliantly on two levels. It makes a short punchy point about the fact of the crisis, without lots of distracting text. “

Except their stated aim is: “With your sponsorship, we’re placing bus shelter ads near the United Nations in midtown Manhattan to send a powerful message to member states that they must keep their promises!”

So it is apparently aimed at UN officials….or at least the ones who take the bus.

Well, that’s even better.

A well targeted campaign.

Brett - it’s a poster. A poster, not a press release.

I agree with David. It uses the medium well, states its message simply and has a straightforward call to action. I really don’t understand your objections to it.

After Iraq, it is understandable why no one wants to do anything. Then current mood is to let people solve their own problems.

“A well targeted campaign.”

Don’t forget the international dialing code before you txt thought - or you may inadvertantly be naming the Blue Peter kittens something silly.

“It uses the medium well, states its message simply and has a straightforward call to action.”

What action?

Har. Reminds me of the ubiquitous “Free Tibet” bumper stickers seen around Universities. Okay. Other than pat yourself on the back, what do you propose to do?

“What action?”

I said ‘call to action’ - which in this case is: text for more information. Stated simply, fairly clearly, no confusion there.

I’ll say it again - it’s a poster. And as a poster, it works well.

The poster is weak. Even a brief look the history of propaganda posters in the 20th century would show many better examples of ‘hard hitting’ campaigns. I think the reasons for this are clear and nothing much to do with a failure of imagaination by the commissioned designers. It is to avoid making certain unpleasant facts plain. The UN, or large parts of its membership, has in recent times failed in almost every instance when put to the test. Can there really be anyone left who either does not realise what is happening in Darfur and the reasons for it? A poster campaign is not going to shame any diplomat or bureaucrat at the UN who is still capable of looking at themselves in the mirror.

From what I can tell China blocks any attempt at intervention and will always do so as long as their trade deals exist.
we could intervene in Darfur and kick Sudan out altogether, but as someone mentioned, post-Iraq there is no will. There is no League of Democracies to debate whether a country is treating its people so badly there is an ethical cause for invasion.
Oh well, tum-te-tum, they’ll just have to die then.

Re China, it would be more effective to advertise a worldwide boycott on Chinese good.

Failing that, start a rumor that Korans are being chucked into Sudanese toilets. The surrounding countries might be inclined to intervene.

I’ll do and upload a ‘remix’ in a minute…

The idea of bus stop advertising is surely that it’s visible to all users of the highway Brett, presumably even those in the back seats of luxury cars.
I think the ad is OK.

Well, to fill the “hard hitting” promise, I’d figure something along the lines of this.

I like your ad Brett. When I worked at Amnesty there was always a debate about how ´hard-hitting´we should be. One issue was that using too many graphic images could either traumatise or de-sensitise people over time. I personally found some our ads in the mid-90s a bit too in-your-face and we used to get a lot of complaints about them.

On the substantive point, it is not now the UN Security Council that is the problem. We´ve got the authorisation for the mission, but member states are not coming up with the equipment - particularly helicopters - and the Sudanese government is obstructing the deployment because it wants a suspension of the ICC indictments.

The UN does not have its own standing army and so it needs States to commit troops. It is also having huge problems raising a force for Somalia (which is now probably even a greater humanitarian catastrophe).

Thanks Conor. Yes, the ICC issue seems to be the complication (among others) that the David Lanz piece I referred to cites as one of the bigger stumbling blocks.

Likewise thanks for the links to the Lanz piece, which is good and well-balanced. Andrew Natsios’s point at the end about the over-concentration on Darfur to the neglect of the south is well-made.

I do wonder why Moreno-Ocampo issued the indictment when he did? You would have thought that after all the blunders in Uganda he would have been a bit more savvy to the peace and justice dilemma.

There are only 3 things that will (together) prevent atrocities like Dafur happening - (1) abolition of the UN (2) intervention (3) prolonged investment (of time and materials).

Democratic countries have a moral obligation to intervene when tin pot dictators/mass murderers put their country-folk to the sword.

I’d rather see some of my taxes go towards a Dafur rehabilitation fund than the mutual cock-sucking fest that is the EU political machine.

The UN does not have its own standing army

Thank fuck for that. I think we all know the first place a UN army would be deployed.

“Well, to fill the “hard hitting” promise, I’d figure something along the lines of this.”

You mean doing something that’s not that far removed from the original poster that you claimed was awful? Yes, excellent work Brett. And I’m sure all those people driving or walking past will easily be able to take in your extra block of text.

You also need to sort out your proofreading skills….

2/10

“You mean doing something that’s not that far removed from the original poster that you claimed was awful?”

Perhaps you don’t fully understand the word “remix”.

“You also need to sort out your proofreading skills….”

I didn’t proofread, I did a mockup in under 10 minutes to demonstrate a point.

Oh, and while I’m driving past how am I supposed to tell what that black shape is sitting on top of those eggs? They are eggs aren’t they? Wait, no… damn, I missed it.

I think it’s a good poster.

“I didn’t proofread, I did a mockup in under 10 minutes to demonstrate a point.”

What point? That you don’t seem to understand how best to communicate a complicated message in a simple fashion to a time-poor audience that really doesn’t want to know about, let alone see, your message?

Your (remix) poster, quite simply, isn’t as effective or as immediate as the original.

I do advertising for a living Brett. Which means that - for once - there’s something on HP I can confidently say I know a hell of a lot about. So you’ll have to excuse me for disagreeing with you about this.

“I do advertising for a living Brett. Which means that - for once - there’s something on HP I can confidently say I know a hell of a lot about. So you’ll have to excuse me for disagreeing with you about this.”

Well, that’s interesting because so do I. In fact I lectured in Graphic Design at a university for several years. We’ll just have to professionally agree to disagree then.

My view is is NO WAY that the text giving the scale of the catastrophe (300,000 dead) or the instruction to text 90999 is going to be seen. That’s missing both the money shot and the desired payoff. What’s worse, the two largest words, are “Delay” and “Darfur” make an odd coupling, seemingly at odds with what they’re asking, which is for speed.

The advert is sold as “hard hitting” but where is the punch? What is “hard hitting” about it? It conveys no information and no instruction.

But as much as it might be fun to get ino a wank-fest over typography, it isn’t really the point of my post, is it? As Conor picked up, the shortage of design ideas is really just a reflection of a more serious shortage of political ideas.

Great cause …

… but it does remind me of one the great Rock heckles. Bono (who else?) was lecturing an audience, and to illustrate his point said: ‘Every time I click my fingers, a child dies in Africa.’

Rather predictably, some wag in the audience yelled: ‘Then stop clicking your fingers, you fucker!

Does it actually matter if it’s a good poster or not? Surely the lesson of Darfur (and Zimbabwe and Somalia and previously Rwanda) is that what happens in Africa don’t actually matter to the west - or at least to the governments of the west? Sure Amnesty can create posters and various very well meaning people can make noise but it doesn’t seem to make much difference. It seems that as there is no obvious strategic interest there is no meaningful intervention,

I agree with Brett, it’s a naff. Not everybody knows about Darfur. Explains very little. People will assume, oh looks like Africa. Must be about starvation. What difference can I make? I give up. etc

I think unless you understand the context of the poster, it just isn’t going to make you take notice. We become desensitised by so many of these campaigns as it is. Explains next to nothing unless you’re already in the know.

I suppose part of the problem is that Amnesty does not want to reinforce the views of simplistic and stupid (but arrogant) people like Greg who think that it is the UN’s fault that people are dying in Darfur. The UN cannot itself get more peacekeeping troops into Darfur, it needs to appeal to its member states to do this - hence the focus of the appeal.

The US remains very reluctant to commit troops to Africa, since Somalia, and both it and the UK are over-committed because of Afghanistan and Iraq. The French already have troops in Chad. That does not leave that many other western countries with big armies. Remember that Europe is still committed to Kosovo and Bosnia.

Sudan is objecting to any western troops being deployed - hence the compromise AU-UN mission - but Africa does not have that many troops to spare either, when you consider that it is also covering the DRC, Liberia and Sierra Leone (which are all huge missions) and is being asked to go into Somalia. Every time I fly through Africa I always end up sharing planes with soliders being sent to another mission somewhere.

The simple fact is that there are now far more peace-keeping operations taking place than at any time in history and the soldiers have got to come from somewhere. Bangladesh, India and Pakistan already contribute quite a lot of troops to UN missions (partly for financial reaons) and Brazil is leading a mainly Latin American contingent in Haiti. I suppose there is Indonesia and Turkey, but I am not up for asking the Russians and Chinese!

My guess is that what Amnesty are really trying to do is put pressure on the west to come up with more money to pay for a bigger mission. One idea floated a few months ago was to rent helicopters from India. Of course, in a recession all this becomes harder.

People don’t think about the successes of UN missions, but we actually do live in a much more peaceful world than, say, 10 years ago. Amnesty is constuctively critical of the UN because it understands its value as well as its limitations. Unfortunately that is often difficult to explain in a simple and powerful way. Particularly when the organisation is so often unfairly maligned by both the right and ultra-left.

I think the poster is striking and well-designed. No poster can explain problems in depth, but at least it can get attention. This one does. Then hopefully people will read on their own and try to do something.

Unfortunately I am beginning to have that hopeless feeling lately, especially with the economic crisis escalating. People are so worried about their immediate futures and even within individual cities, states and nations, there’s little sense of unity, of concern for each other. In fact there’s dreadful polarization over the election right now. I hope once that’s over maybe people in the US can turn some attention outward once again. I think there’s a danger, though, of some Americans just wanting to detach altogether (as if that were desireable or even possible).

I’m worried that Darfur might as well be on the moon these days:(

And the UN - what to do? That’s really a serious problem, maybe a follow up poster will ask what the UN “human rights” body is up to these days or why the General Assembly cheers a Naziesque speech by Ahmadijenad.

Instead of your customary whinge Brett, why not design an advert yourself and send it to them, explaining why you think it is an improvement on the current version.

Save Darfur has a campaign for people to sign and send a postcard to the new President urging him to take action on Darfur. Their aim is to have one million postcards sent to the White House by Innaguration Day, January 20th. See http://action.savedarfur.org/campaign/addyourvoice08
for the on-line version. You can also download copies or have Save
Darfur mail your copies for distribution at Churches, Synagouges, Community Centers etec.

If you want to see an awfully effective poster for Darfur; go to Save Darfur’s homepage at http://www.savedarfur.org/content?splash=yes
In the middle of the page is the link to the postcard campaign. The are a number of changing photos. One shows blown up images of Darfurans outside the Oval Office looking in.

Well if you’ve lectured in graphic design your poster must be better after all. Probably amnesty need to talk to some electrical engineers about a radio ad at some point too.

Brett’s right, it would be ‘hard hitting’ if it named names - who it is in the UN that is causing the ‘delay’?

It’s wishy washy.

I also assumed it was some far lefty reverse culpability shiite when I saw the blood splatter.

Surely the lesson of Darfur (and Zimbabwe and Somalia and previously Rwanda) is that what happens in Africa don’t actually matter to the west|

What’s happening in Africa doesn’t seem to matter much to Africa!

No, rather the lesson is, that Africa’s sadly mainly a basket case where poor governance is the norm. The West is trying, making all the right noises; but if it actually does something really effective, like intervene - the neocolonalisism charge will get trundled out. Given that Africa represents such a tiny percentage of global GDP and given the structure and constituents of the UN. Where we are at with Africa is simply inevitable. And on current reckoning, it’ll still be a basket case in 50 years.

One shows blown up images of Darfurans outside the Oval Office looking in.

Hah……Someone’s channeling Chomsky. Ironic really, given how good the Bush administration’s been on Africa.

“Well if you’ve lectured in graphic design your poster must be better after all. Probably amnesty need to talk to some electrical engineers about a radio ad at some point too.”

I’m glad you said that Jon. Graphic design, after all, is not quite the same thing as advertising….

Hah……Someone’s channeling Chomsky. Ironic really, given how good the Bush administration’s been on Africa.

Not a question of channeling Chomsky, but the US position on Sudan is extremely complex, as this article indicates:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/26/AR2008052601965.html

Earlier, Ken Silverstein reported on the security and intelligence links between the Sudanese and US intelligence services.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4627075

I suspect this story is rather more nuanced than many suspect. Its important that public pressure continues to be be exerted on the US as well all other Sec Council members.

The design of the poster is okay - nothing special but it gets a basic message across pretty well. Its extraordinary that Brett should lead on criticism of the graphical design of a poster, rather than simply getting behind this campaign. Of course there are huge complications in the politics of it all, but Amnesty’s primary job is to mobilise public pressure around human rights issues, and pressurise governments, as stated in its Mandate. (This type of work quietly helps saves lives.) AI has very clear areas it gets into, and areas it doesn’t. It’s not a debating society, and its not a think tank. It’s a human rights pressure group.

Putting posters up is part of that. If Brett doesn’t like that, he may prefer think tankery to the kind of work that Amnesty does - indeed that it is mandated to do. That’s fair enough. However, criticising a human rights group for putting posters up is kind of wacky.

Fwiw I don’t work in ad biz. However even a A- poster is better than nothing. It’s unlikely that the brief was to create the worlds greatest bus stop poster ever cos anything less would be worse than useless.

“I’m glad you said that Jon. Graphic design, after all, is not quite the same thing as advertising….”

Paul, the Amnesty ad as it stands advertises nothing. Please explain what is “hard hitting” about making the top line about some unspecified delay by some unspecified group, while burying the extent of the catastrophe in the small-print. How does this galvanise action?

In fact, the key to the whole campaign is to “Demand Action” but that is in teeny tiny print at the bottom.

“Putting posters up is part of that. If Brett doesn’t like that, he may prefer think tankery to the kind of work that Amnesty does - indeed that it is mandated to do. That’s fair enough. However, criticising a human rights group for putting posters up is kind of wacky.”

Benjamin. I patently not criticising them for putting up posters. I’m criticising them for putting up ineffective posters - posters which, contrary to their claim, does not appear to be “hard hitting” and moreover appears to be confused as to who its target audience is.

The media put out by savedarfur that David All links to above is far more hard-hitting and effecitive. Amnesty, of course, has a greater reach and a bigger brand. It’s a pity they can’t combine forces.

Back to the Amnesty ad. Their email says it’s targeted at representatives of UN Member States. But it doesn’t address them directly. Instead it says “Every day that UN member states delay…” That isn’t “hard hitting”, that’s passive-agression. Why not address the issue head on: “UN Delays Cost Lives”?

“AI has very clear areas it gets into, and areas it doesn’t. It’s not a debating society, and its not a think tank. It’s a human rights pressure group. “

Precisely. But the poster fails to ask anyone to apply any pressure. No one is asking it to “think tank”. To be effective, a political poster needs to do two things. It needs to presnt the problem and propose the solution, or alternatively, say what needs to be done and who should do it. Take a look at any of the best examples of political poster over the decades and you’ll see this basic dynamic. The Amnesty ad does not do this.

A simple - and more effective - formula would be:
“U.N. inaction costs lives - No more delays on Darfur - Support our Petition, call 99….”

I patently not criticising them for putting up posters.

However, in reference to David Lanz’s report you say:

Whether one agrees with all his conclusions or not, one is certainly left with the feeling that coughing up for some bus shelter ads ain’t gonna do the trick.

“Whether one agrees with all his conclusions or not, one is certainly left with the feeling that coughing up for some bus shelter ads ain’t gonna do the trick.”

Do you think it’s going to do the trick?

It’s not question of ‘doing the trick’. Human rights organisations are in it for the long, hard slog. This poster is just one of a whole range of materials that Amnesty and other such groups use to raise awareness and get folk to contribute or take action.

Benjamin, I’m constantly amused at how - almost like a bizarro Turing Test - you manage to conduct conversations by stringing together truisms and platitudes. ;-)

For what it’s worth I agree with Brett that this is a poorly written ad. I had to read the top line three times to get the sense of it. Admittedly I may not have the literacy level of a UN delegtae, but still.

I agree with Nick in South Africa. there is nothing we can do while charges of neo-colonialism remain. For what its worth I would support a group of democracies going into much of africa on an overtly liberal-neo-colonalist agenda. I think one nation has the right to intervene in another’s affair when it is abusing or starving its people, not just a right but a duty, in order to feed the population, institute the rule of law and create ways of making the rule of law permannet, reduce unsustainable birth rates not in a marie stopes way but by providing a universal state pension, and protecting the habitat of wildlife.

I would rule these countries with a governor until a time has come when they can rule themselves. in the case of most of Africa that also means breaking up the artificial multi-national states that are the problem.

After the caustic international criticism over Iraq, Americans are trending toward isolationism, according to some recent polls. I quite agree that no more American resources go to clean up the messes others have made of their countries. They will only be condemned for not helping in proper manner, helping too late, too early, in the wrong place, etc ..

Foreign conflicts should just be allowed to burn themselves out. People have to solve their own problems instead of being saved from themselves time after time.

Oh…I should have added, the REAL neocolonialists in Africa, are the Chinese.

Oh and of course the French get a free pass on their regular African interventions.

Hope folks at HP will sign the postcard that will be sent to the next President.

The poster itself is just totemic posturing by an ineffective pressure group.
As Brett correctly puts it, the elephant in the room is the UN. It is a completely pointless system, invested with unrealisable hopes by the modern day religious lobby (the pacifists and idealistic liberals).
The only answer to the killing is Western airpower. Shoot down the Sudanese airforce and bomb their military and militias.

I for one won’t be signing any crappy postcard for Africa, It’s not in our power to change the continent just let it fester like it’s always done, I couldnt care less about the place myself.

There is something someone could do though, How about working out how much money has been given to African states since independence and what percentage actually got spent on what it was given for and how much ended up in Swiss bank accounts.

Zimbabwe is Africas future and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

It’s a terrible poster. The word ‘Delay’, which is completely meaningless on its own (is it a noun? Is it a verb? Is it in the imperative form?) is the first prominent thing you see. You then have to work out what the hell it says above it.

Darfur should have been at the very top. Then ‘Death’ or something immediately below it.

The bottom paragraph is complete drivel - it tells you nothing about the reason you should bother to text.

And of course, on the practical level, it will achieve fuck all.

Ah, well, I guess Mr Plattitude Storm in a Teacup will tell me that I am whingeing. After all, everything is for the best in the best possible world, when self-important, self-appointed people are out to save humanity (or so they tell us).