The bad nonprofit ads showcase
In this entertaining and informative new showcase, Jeff Brooks, creative director of TrueSense marketing in the USA, will be highlighting the bad, the ugly and the very worst of fundraising adverts in the hope that we all can learn from the mistakes of others, as well as our own.
‘No sale’ video from Oxfam
by Tom Belford
This week we have a bad ad nominated by a new contributor, Tom Belford from the celebrated Agitator.
(Comments: 3)
Asking the biggest questions of all
by Andrew Papworth
Do you agree when Andrew Papworth says that the British Humanist Association ad here shows muddled thinking and poor execution?
(Comments: 3)
World’s shortest stupid nonprofit ad
by Jeff Brooks
Sorry if this series offends. It’s meant to provoke, challenge the blinkered and encourage improvement. And its author Jeff Brooks could have said, the world’s stupidest short nonprofit ad. It’s difficult to see how anyone imagined this ad would be a good idea. Well, actually, it’s difficult to see, period. As Jeff says, ‘Get real…’
(Comments: 0)
Stupid misconception about the inner lives of children
by Jeff Brooks
According to Jeff Brooks the slogan ‘it’s easy to convince children that killing is a game’ is breathtakingly false and the premise of this ad is an insanely ill-conceived visual metaphor.
(Comments: 1)
Garbage in, garbage out
by Jeff Brooks
Oh dear, oh dear, here’s an award-winning ad that has lost the point entirely. The young people featured make it seem they think fundraising is a bigger enemy than poverty. I’m sure they didn’t mean it – or did they?
(Comments: 6)
This ad accuses repressive governments of absent-mindedness
by Jeff Brooks
As with other bad nonprofit ads, the question is this: why resort to abstraction when the truth itself is so powerful?
(Comments: 1)
How to fail to motivate your audience to take action
by Nancy E. Schwartz
The ads featured here were designed, pro bono, by the agency G2 in the USA and will run in high-end consumer magazines. The space in the media will be paid for by Ultimat Vodka – and won’t come cheap. Will they be worth it? Most likely not, says leading US blogger Nancy Schwartz, and she gives SOFII users seven ways that will motivate our donors to action.
(Comments: 1)
An ad that unplugs a flood of nonprofit stupidity
by Jeff Brooks
This effort from the Canadian Red Cross shows how an ad writer can get things hopelessly wrong.
(Comments: 2)
The ad that trivialises tragedy.
by Jeff Brooks
Jeff Brooks has some more severe words for ad agencies and their questionable campaign creations for charities.
(Comments: 5)
Be womankind?
by Andrew Papworth
SOFII is all about celebrating and sharing great fundraising ideas so that we can all become a little more successful ourselves. But here Andrew Papworth, author of fundraising newsletter, Harvest, suggests that an Oxfam advert unveiled for International Women’s Day isn’t exactly top of the list to take fundraising notes from. What do you think?
(Comments: 9)
Exhibit search
