Comparing one tragedy to another: How to be an Insensitive Buttvomit™

june gloom on 1/9/2009 at 20:14

Gotta love insensitive ads like (http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2009/09/911-was-nothing-according-to-new-wwf-ad.html) this one.

WWF insists they had nothing to do with this, and I'm inclined to believe them. WWF has yet to reach PETA levels of gross insensitivity, and this ad doesn't count as it's apparently made by an outside organization.

Discuss.

SubJeff on 1/9/2009 at 20:24

I dunno man. Whilst 9/11 was a terrible day tbh the Boxing Day Tsunami was much, much worse. Its a valid point to make and I don't think it's "exploiting" 9/11. Is it? I just don't know. See, everyone knows details about 9/11 but about the Tsumani - how much can the average Joe say? And on TV here in the UK there is always a lot of coverage re:9/11 memorials in the US, so much so that people are a little sick of it and make all sorts of sarcastic comments along the lines of "Oh, yeah, that. The USA suffered the woooorst tragedy EVER. No one has known suffering like it. Ever! :rolleyes:".

My point is that we are all reminded about 9/11 because of stuff in the news (ongoing terrorist activity, operations in Iraq and Afghanistan) so its a good point of reference for a lot of people. Is this advert insensitive? It might be but I don't get that from it and its certainly not because I think meh when I think of 9/11.

Is it de facto wrong to compare one tragedy to another, or is it sometimes useful for reference?

fett on 1/9/2009 at 22:09

ITS OKAY GUYS WE GOT THE GUY THAT BLUE UP THE TOWERS. WHOSE LAUGHING NOW

glslvrfan on 1/9/2009 at 23:13

YAY!!!! term limits

SD on 1/9/2009 at 23:22

That advert is fucking brilliant. I wish I'd thought of it first.

ercles on 1/9/2009 at 23:30

It is a fairly brilliant piece of advertising, although deliberately callous, it gets across the message.

Not having any real connections to the USofA I'd never claim to know a lot about 9/11, but it seems to me that it's sad that the pain surrounding the events have become such a parody of themselves. Between the people screaming NEVAR FORGET, and those who seemed to twist the pain after the event to their own gains (not wanting to get political here, but judging by all the memorial products sold this extended far beyond the government), it's hard to take seriously anymore, as the real raw sentiments have been so watered down by this point.

Scots Taffer on 1/9/2009 at 23:38

That is an awesome ad, very powerful image and expertly done.

Of course, it's utterly callous, nasty and too close to the anniversary to be appropriate... but yeah, cool idea.

TTK12G3 on 1/9/2009 at 23:45

I'm kind of torn about how I feel about.

Quote Posted by Scots Taffer

That is an awesome ad, very powerful image and expertly done.

It kind of looks like a 4chan shoop.

SubJeff on 1/9/2009 at 23:57

Dear Forum,

What amazes me is the comments on the page dethtoll linked to. The anti-ad people seem so... dumb. So many illogical progressions its bizarre; its like knights-move thinking.

Then there are the "backlash" posts of the type "then again the HIV capitol of the world doesnt have much to brag about anyway" and "The folks who died on 9/11 actually made contributions to the modern world. Can't really say that about tsunami vics."

Incredulous of Birmingham

june gloom on 2/9/2009 at 00:00

Quote Posted by Subjective Effect

Is it de facto wrong to compare one tragedy to another, or is it sometimes useful for reference?

Without getting into the distinction between natural disaster/deliberate attack, ads like this aren't any less exploitative than little pewter WTCs sold as memorial products like ercles mentioned.

The main point is, it's not a fucking contest over which horrible event killed more people. Both were horrible. It's nothing to do with 9/11 being sacrosanct- at the end of the day, 9/11 or the tsunami, thousands of people died and that's all that really matters. Does it really fucking matter which one killed more people? Exploiting a disaster- or, in this case, two disasters for the price of one- is insensitive at best and just plain evil at worst.

For that matter, what is the point of the ad? Is it trying to say that the earth is going to rise up and destroy us all, destructoporn style, because we litter? Because if that's the point of the ad, then I'd say it managed to be insensitive and nonsensical.

The reaction the ad is getting here is rather suprising because I thought TTLG would a little more thoughtful than thilsdj;falkdjflkjl;dkfajlsdweff aaaaaaa okay nevermind dunno what I was thinking