[attombomb7]

sounds interesting!!

and fun to see!

[Fram]

Half a page in the newspaper (De Morgen) today about the fuss this campaign has created worldwide. Contains interviews with someone from IMPS and someone from Unicef Belgium. Apparently, they ahve gotten five negative reactions at Unicef Belgium (only five), so the reports you find in the international press about outraged parents and shocked children are a bit exaggerated. It looks like other Unicef offices are more shocked, and someone from Unicef Netherlands said that they would never run such a campaign.

The spokesperson from Unicef Belgium was shocked himself (yep, it's all shock and awe here), because while campaigns with real images barely cause a ripple, a campaign where cartoon characters are killed is world news.

Oh, and the IMPS person said that the Smurfs (HB cartoons) are currently being shown in some forty or fifty countries So Karen, I think there will be a Smurf buyi!ng audience for years to come

I'll try to give some more details about the article tonight.

[Guest]

Thanks Fram.

[DrunkSmurf]

Whoops! I had started a new thread, not having looked this one up!

I just saw the commercial and I thought the smurf part was pretty tame compared to what I was expecting....I guess we have seen worse images in realty than those....

I'm in Syd's boat. For better and for worse, we're so inundated in America with violent movies and television that the smurf cartoon was almost cute. I watched it with my mum (who recorded it from the news for me) and I didn't even realize smurfs were dying until she replayed it and pointed out the bodies. They looked like they were lying stunned after a big Jokey gift bomb.

[DrunkSmurf]

The spokesperson from Unicef Belgium was shocked himself (yep, it's all shock and awe here), because while campaigns with real images barely cause a ripple, a campaign where cartoon characters are killed is world news.

This is ironic.

It might be the opposite in America. While Hollywood and cable TV bombard us with the most gore-splattered imagery, when it comes to real news, we only see the cleaned up stuff.

[favorite_smurf]

well maybe they can make the wheelchair and injured smurf a promo?

I mean new promo!! for Unicef! call them survivors!

Hi

Shell I change the title of my eBay Lots (French Disabled Promo Wheelchair Smurf peyo figure) to say "Smurf in wheelchair after bombing".

http://cgi.ebay.nl/French-Disabled-Prom ... dZViewItem

and after this lot is over I could send UNICEF 50% of the winning price.

[Fram]

Here's a high quality pic (I hope) of the advert as it appeared in the paper last week.

[Syd Smurf]

Nice pic Fram.....now where have I seen that image of a Smurfette laying face down with parts of clothing removed before?.....hmm....oh yeah that's right.....every Saturday night outside Syd's cottage.....actually that image of the village hit by bombs resembles my village on a Sunday morning before Brainy and the Caretaker smurfs help restore it once more for the week.

[Rachel]

Excellent pic Fram, I think that is the best one I have seen of it yet. Thanks for sharing it with us.

It is very interesting to see how this is shaping up and the fuss it is causing. UNICEF obviously knew what they were doing when they had this idea. Good on them.

[Syd Smurf]

After looking at that pic I am wondering where is Papa? Did he have inside information and left the village a few hours before to save himself? Or perhaps he was the victim of the first strike.....I know if I wanted to destroy the smurf village you would look to take Papa out first otherwise he'd conjure something up to ruin your plans I suppose....hmm.....ok, I better stop here otherwise I might say something stupid.

[Guest]

Found this full statement from Unicef about the video

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_28772.html

[Guest]

Also, the Official Smurf website have added details about the Unicef campaign to their news section.

[swarlock]

Half a page in the newspaper (De Morgen) today about the fuss this campaign has created worldwide. Contains interviews with someone from IMPS and someone from Unicef Belgium. Apparently, they ahve gotten five negative reactions at Unicef Belgium (only five), so the reports you find in the international press about outraged parents and shocked children are a bit exaggerated. It looks like other Unicef offices are more shocked, and someone from Unicef Netherlands said that they would never run such a campaign.
.

Seeing the pictures alone made me cringe. I understand the reasoning for the campaign but this can only hurt the revival in the end as I've said on another board.

[DrunkSmurf]

Who's it supposed to be rallying against? Bombs from airplanes has "United States" written all over it, unless the horse brigands in Darfur and Sudan managed to save up for an F-15. Does Congo have bombers?

[attombomb7]

Who's it supposed to be rallying against? Bombs from airplanes has "United States" written all over it, unless the horse brigands in Darfur and Sudan managed to save up for an F-15. Does Congo have bombers?

very good point! I hadn't thought of it like that.

[Rachel]

Hi Tim, that is a very interesting point.

Like Attom, I hadn't really thought of it like that either.

[Fram]

Saddam bombed Kurd villages. Israel bombs Palestines. The Nato bombed Sarajevo (after the Serbs bombed some countries)...

Don't see this as a criticism of what happens now, but as a campaign against war as a whole. Bombs from planes are unpersonal, if they would have shown soldiers, you would have a uniform, perhaps a skin colour, ... and things would get less universal.

[DrunkSmurf]

Have you seen the movie Dr. Strangelove? Sub-titled: "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"?

[Syd Smurf]

Don't see this as a criticism of what happens now, but as a campaign against war as a whole.

I agree Fram....I think it's a general message of the devastation that war causes to innocent lives and the use of smurfs is brillant in as far you can't get more innocent beings than our little blue friends.......just to prove how wrong it really all is.