An ad that unplugs a flood of nonprofit stupidity

Leave it to an ad agency to make sure nobody knows what you’re talking about, even when you’re talking about something everybody knows about.

The winner they came up with is a nearly full-page newspaper print ad done for the Canadian Red Cross.

It’s true that many fundraisers have struggled to communicate the crushing scope of the flooding in Pakistan. (There are some unfortunately predictable reasons for this; read about them here.) But the main reason donors aren’t pouring their donations into Pakistan like they did with Haiti is because the disaster there seems less real.

You might think a solution to that problem would be to find a way to make it more real, wouldn’t you? Well, the ad agency working for the Canadian Red Cross this time took a rather different approach: make it less real.

Yep, the Geniuses of Abstraction felt the best way to use nearly a full newspaper page of space wasn’t a heart-wrenching photo, wasn’t a headline that captured the pain and urgency of the crisis, wasn’t copy that pulled the reader viscerally into the situation. Their solution was a cute visual pun.

Actually, I’m not sure it even rises to the level of a pun. In what way do letters falling down the page recall a catastrophic flood that devastated the lives of something like a third of one of Earth’s most populous nations? The little red cross acting as an umbrella? Isn’t that kind of like illustrating the Haiti earthquake by showing a picture of maracas?

And if all that weren’t bad enough, the tiny bit of copy makes several basic rookie copywriting mistakes:

‘Don’t let hope get washed away. We are on the ground,

providing aid to flood victims in Pakistan.

And we need your support.’

An abstract slogan, followed by two look-at-us sentences. Not how you motivate giving. It’s never worked before and it’s not going to work this time.

I understand the frustration. This was a big disaster. Not nearly enough funds were raised. Sadly, given the circumstances, even a well-constructed ad wouldn’t have performed the way it should.

But no matter how frustrated you get, don’t call in the abstract fairy dust that the ad agencies sell. It’s just going to waste time, money  and good will.

Update: this ad has won an award! So it has accomplished its purpose. Too bad that’s about all it will ever do.

Newspaper print ad done for the Canadian Red Cross.

Click on image to enlarge.