It used to be that the WWF, the World Wildlife Fund, was best known for chokeslamming Vince McMahon and taking away his logo. But now they’re the ones getting taken to the mat.
You may have seen this ad:
You can see the full-sized ad here. According to Adweek, the copy at top-right reads: “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.” Followed by the WWF web address and logo. It’s comparing a tsunami, an act of God, with 9/11, an act of bloodthirsty madmen. It’s equating a natural disaster with an act of mass murder.
When this ad started circulating online, the outcry was universal. Why, it was so bad, Keith Olbermann said that DDB Brasil, the agency that created the ad, was even worse than Glenn Beck. And to Olbermann, that’s pretty darn bad.
The WWF and DDB Brasil have since put out a series of contradictory statements about the ad. First, the WWF had nothing to do with it. Then DDB said it had been approved by the WWF. Then, okay, the WWF did approve it, but of course they immediately realized their mistake and the creative team behind it is no longer with the company.
It remains to be seen how they’re going to explain this. WARNING: Don’t watch this if you still remember 9/11 and are on blood pressure medication:
Actual human beings created that ad. If you want to call them that.
According to Advertising Age:
A DDB Brasil spokesperson in Sao Paulo said a video version of the ad being circulated on the internet was not done or authorized by the agency or the client. She said DDB execs first saw the video, which features slightly different copy, on the internet and don’t know who created it.
Looks pretty professional, doesn’t it? Are they going to claim some kid cooked it up in his basement, based on a print ad? And then slapped DDB Brasil’s name on it? Considering none of the involved parties has told the same story twice about the whole thing, I get the feeling we’ll have another backpedal by tomorrow. Who knew people who tell lies for a living could be so bad at it?
How about this, advertising industry: If somebody even brings up using 9/11 in an ad, you tell him to pack up his desk and get the hell out of the building.
(Hat tip to Ace of Spades)
8/3 Update: Well, now the video has been taken off Youtube. “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by DDB Brasil.” So it wasn’t done or authorized by the agency or the client, they don’t know who created it, and yet they’re claiming copyright. Hey, why not?
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To Keith Olbermann evil people go in the following order:
Hitler
Anti-Christ
Glenn Beck
I suppose the ad that showed Jews being forced into ovens to equate the loss of square feet of rain forest with the Holocaust was considered too subtle?
Why? Why? WHY would anyone think this was acceptable? What message do they think this sends? No one is going to see anything other than a bunch of planes about to crash into Manhatten. Even if this were a disaster movie ad, it would be inappropriate. Honestly, that looks more like a threat than an plea to “save” the planet. I like animals, I usually like WWF, but this has me seriously reconsidering any future association with them.
When natural disasters strike, there is no malice. On 9/11, the only thing in those cockpits was malice.
Yes GT, they nixed that idea, along with praising the War in Darfur as a faithful metaphor for melting glaciers.
I’m glad there’s been outrage over that ad.
Who wants to start the betting pool as to when BHO will apologize for the horrible Americans who are stifling the Brazilians’ freedom of speech? I’m thinking Friday’s press conference…
That….makes them look like eco-terrorists. If we don’t save the earth, the earth is gonna kill us all.
Brazilians in general aren’t huge fans of Americans, but…I really can’t see this level of….uh…what is the word I’m looking for here? I’m sorry; I just completely lost my train of thought.
When the two aircraft collided over the Hudson a few weeks ago, it made national news because of at least these 3 facts:
1) it was over the Hudson, the same river on which the airliner made a successful water landing
2) it was in the New York City area (a city attacked by airplanes on 9/11)
3) aircraft accidents get more press than auto wrecks
If this happened over Des Moines, it still may have made the nat’l news.
There were over 100 fatalities in the US that same day due to auto accidents. Why didn’t that make nat’l news? The point is, there’s something about airplane accidents that get people’s attention more than car wrecks. They just seem more … horrifying.
Fast forward to the WWF ad – personally, I don’t see an intentional or inferred “natural disaster-vs-terrorist attack” comparison. Instead, I see the point they’re trying to make – the tsunami was a lot worse with regard to human life lost. Should they have used the 9/11 attack as part of the ad ? Maybe not. People, especially New Yorkers, are still sensitive to that — rightfully so. But people can relate to the scale of the 9/11 tragedy. Perhaps an animation of the 2 747’s colliding at Tenerife would have been a better choice, “if” you’re going to use a disaster to piggy-back on.
Or I know! How about KAL 007 getting shot down ?
Reminds me a bit of 11′09″01 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328802). Amidst our grief, we didn’t notice that others around the world might find our grief rather over the top, and some even thought the US had it coming. *Don’t jump all over me, flag-wavers, I’m not saying I agree with them.* But that opinion does exist, and not just in countries whose citizens are called to prayer five times a day.
It was a tsunami. Caused by an earthquake. They compared it to a mass murder.
It’s not about the numbers.
I agree with Les Paul, apparently writing from the Great Beyond; I dropped a brand new ice cream cone today and it was just like what Pol Pot did in Cambodia.
Yeah, methinks some people need a refresher course in SAT analogies.
Victims of natural disaster:Victims of terrorists attack::People need to respect the earth’s powah: …..??????……
Oh I think I remember this from one of my prep books.
Is the answer People need to respect Al Gore?
There is so little respect on the left for the victims of 9/11. Organizing For America liberals in Illinois planned to take back 9/11 from ‘right wing domestic terrorists’. They were going to use the day to inundate law makers with calls about health care reform. The link to their plan at mybarakobama.com has since been disabled. Someone thought better of it … for now.
I’m pretty solidly convinced that the only thing that upset most liberals, in particular celebrities, about 9/11 was that it pushed their fatuous little lives to the back burner for a few days. All of a sudden, all anybody cared about was that 3000 nobodies were slaughtered. How utterly outrageous.
This ad is obscene. It’s loathsome, and profoundly insensitive, and the exact opposite of clever or motivating. There are kids walking around today who never met, or don’t remember, the parents they lost that day. You don’t joke OR exploit mass murder. You just don’t. I don’t see ads for kids’ vitamins featuring emaciated Rwandan orphans, and I don’t WANT to see that, because SCREW THAT NOISE.
All this does is convince me that gaping assholes the world over have much shorter memories than the rest of us.
Yep they plan on remaking 9/11 into something positive.
The Obama administration supports creating clean energy jobs in cities through a campaign called Green the Block, started by the groups Green For All and the Hip Hop Caucus. After cabinet officials met with leaders of the organizations in the West Wing, aides posted a video and a statement on the White House blog.
Van Jones, an Obama environmental adviser, said 9/11 would be an opportunity to “connect, to find other people in your peer group who are also passionate about repowering America but also greening up America and cleaning up America.”
And the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, head of the Hip Hop Caucus said:
“The first milestone for Green the Block will be on our National Day of Service, Sept. 11, 2009, where we will organize Green the Block service events around the country in coordination with the President’s initiative, United We Serve.”
Something they think is more important than 9/11 of course.
“The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.”
If the planet is so brutally powerful then why does its precious panda bears need my help?
“The first milestone for Green the Block will be on our National Day of Service, Sept. 11, 2009, where we will organize Green the Block service events around the country in coordination with the President’s initiative, United We Serve.”
Why not MLK day, or Presidents day? If it’s about working for others, Labor day would work.
Even better of course would be almost any other day.
WTF? Are they kidding? Comparing a disaster caused by the earth to men who hate anyone who is different than them and killing us in cold blood is the same thing? Try telling that to the victims families. Try telling that to my husband who visited the world trade center in 01-02 and took a piece of it to Afghanistan.
NOt only is it poor taste, but it is offensive. 9/11 did happen. By terrorists. It is NOT a MAN MADE DISASTER as our wonderful president wants us to believe.
Visually compelling image and a horrible denigration of the lives of children and women and men killed in one of the worst terrorist incidents on US soil.
The Video is no longer available…weird!
So…should we expect giant Klan rallies, complete with cake and balloons, on the anniversary of MLK’s assassination? Because hey, they’re trying to be all positive and crap.
Makes about as much sense as trying to turn 9/11 into a big fun block party. What’s the matter, were not enough of the people murdered on 9/11 registered Democrats?
If the planet is that “brutally powerful” then maybe we should kill it before it kills us . . .. .
Simon — “It was a tsunami. Caused by an earthquake. They compared it to a mass murder.
It’s not about the numbers.”
Simon, I understand your viewpoint, and that the numbers issue for you is either very minimal or non-existant due to the 9/11 massacre, and I respect that.
I apparently just see more of the numbers issue than you do, but I agree the ad also mixed in a topic they probably shouldn’t have.
They compared the loss of life, which I agree occurred during a mass murder, to the amount of loss of life during a natural disaster. In both cases, a lot of people lost their lives basically through no fault of their own (I think there were some locations where people somehow got word that the waves were coming and then they watched them, and were the last waves they ever saw ?)
Were they going for the shock-value? Obviously yes.
Was it a good PR idea to use 9/11 in the comparison? Probably not.
When they were discussing this ad, the people who thought this would be a cool ad overrode those who thought (if there were any) it was over-the-top.
Beige — “…and profoundly insensitive…etc…” — Agreed
It would not have been a good idea to instead have incorporated the Oklahoma bombing, either.
That’s why I said maybe they should’ve used another airliner “accident”.
Is this ad worth a deceiver mention ? Most certainly, what with WWF and DDB’s dancing around the issue of who’s fault this was.
“The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.”
Hey, I’m all for doing my part to not trash Earth, but what I want to know is, are they subtly saying if we don’t “preserve” the planet we’ll see more tsunami’s ? C’mon. I respect the power of a tidal wave – that’s why I don’t live near the coast, and I’m way to high above water for flooding. But you can only avoid just so many disasters. Tornadoes are about the only natural disaster I have to worry about.
(You know, sometimes you all don’t see I’m just rattling your cages, mixing my own take on a matter with a pinch of Devil’s advocatism.)
Les, you devil you. Naughty boy.
If they wanted to go for shock value without careening over into Insultville on the Bad Taste Highway, why not use big photos of the actual tsunami devastation? Just a thought.
I believe 9/11 is our generations pearl harbor, it was a day that a lot of people suddenly realized that we weren’t as safe as we thought, and was highly traumatic to many. I think the ad could have gotten thru without much problem if they had just compared the numbers, that would be a rational argument, but that imagery causes people to relive the trauma of that day which throws out rationality and only evokes emotion which was a bad way to go. From a purely rational standpoint the number of people that died on 9/11 were small compared to lots of other numbers, (drunk driving deaths, african aids deaths, darfur genocide deaths, tsunami deaths, etc), but the fact that the deaths were due to malice compounded by the fact that terrorist attack wasn’t something most americans really lived in fear of it cause a dramatic psychological trauma and changed many americans worldview. That ad is the psychological equivalent to showing abuse victims footage of the attack, the lack of sensitivity and understanding of psychology is pretty astounding, huge miscalculation.
The tsunami.
Which tsunami?
Oh, THE tsunami.
Huh?
These panda licking blockheads think tsunami happen only once in a great while?
http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/database_devel.html
And while I hate to use wikipedia without secondary documentation, the length of the list is what I find most compelling:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_tsunami
Lord help us if Bin Laden learns that we’ll only be pissed when he exceeds average decadal tsunami occurances.
Aww. I wanted to watch it but it’s gone. Apparently it is theirs since they’re making copyright claims on it.
That’s what I’m saying, Elle! We have to kill the planet before it kills us first!
If the ad was a manifestation of how much the Brazilians “aren’t huge fans of Americans”, as Pearce put it, it goes way beyond snark and well into what liberals like to call “hate speech”.
Yes, the earth is brutally powerful. Yes, we should do what we can.
But all the recycling ever done will not stop a tsunami, an earthquake, a tornado, a tropical storm.
You can be as kind and as green as you want – the earth can still kick your ass.
I wish that everyone, WWF included, would realize that Earth or nature should not be given anthropomorphic qualities. They’re not people, for crying out loud. I highly doubt that our planet as a whole has any sense of motivation, malevolence, benevolence, etc. and will “kill us” if we don’t “respect it.” Any time people say things like “Mother Nature,” for example, I think they’re being naive or even delusional, though we do it all the time. “The planet” is made up of an almost infinite combination of things, some of which may do harm to us, and while I agree that we shouldn’t s— where we eat (as the saying goes), to attribute consciousness to the whole collection of things that make up the planet Earth is to lack a fundamental understanding of how it works. A lion may eat you because it’s hungry and you’re there, but the lion does not think the way you do; we both may act in a similar fashion sometimes, since we’re both animals, but to pretend it’s a human or that you’re a lion is to ignore reality. The best observers of nature know this. I don’t doubt that Jane Goodall knows the difference between people and chimpanzees, never mind that we have a lot in common.
I’m sorry to go on about this, but it’s a pet peeve of mine, though I’ve certainly slipped and done it myself a few times before.
I saw this reported on for the first time last night on TV, and as they showed it I thought the point was something about too much airplane pollution, and then I saw the WTC………OH!!!!!
They purposefully used 9/11, instead of something that time has healed the wounds of already such as Pearl Harbor, so as to invoke the presecribed (in their minds) knee-jerk reaction. ((They also used a distinctly white-collar catastrophe, IMO.)) What they don’t get, is how stupid they are for not knowing that an ad attack on peoples’ sensibilites such as this only serves to enrage people against their goal, and often causes a reaction diametrically against the cause that they are pushing. Idiots all the way around.
I also feel that they know that something like this will be pulled from rotation immediately, but it’s much like the tactic used in court where you throw out evidence that will surely be struck fromt he record, but it’s out there in the jury’s ears already and you can’t unring the bell. Again, being idiots.
Thanks for posting this here, the more this goes around the ubernews the better.
P.S. I agree on the science aspect expressed here as well. There is no sentient Gaia. We live on a hunk of “congealed” chemicals and minerals hurtling through space with other gases, chemicals, and minerals. What we do to it matters tremendously and if we ruin the jewel in space that God gave us we’re fools. But there is no purposeful Revenge Of The Planet if we fail, sheesh.
This is a horrible and crass advert that by its very nature is going to cause more distress and anger than sympathy for its original aim. I do get the point that they are trying to make, that natural disasters kill hundreds of thousands of people and often get limited news coverage, but this advert does not make the reader say ‘hey, I want my news provider to tell me more about the victims of natural disasters’, but instead ‘hey, why are you being so disrespectful?’. Trying to make parallels is fraught with problems, think back to Paul McCartney equating animals being killed for meat with the Holocaust…stupid, crass, offensive.
“…The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it”
This statement confuses me. If the eartch is so powerful how exactly are we “destroying” it? Are they saying we are stronger then the Earth? If so they should really try and stop one of them there tsunami’s.
I wish people wouldn’t compare 9/11 with Pearl Harbor… they’re two totally different things. Pearl Harbor was, in essence, a military strike. Japan’s military ambushing ours. Yes, civilllians died, and of course it was a terrible, terrible tragedy. But 9/11 was orchestrated by vile animals with the OBVIOUS INTENT to murder as many innocent civillians as possible. While both are tragic and both opened America’s eyes, I can’t really compare the two.
But that’s just MAO.
As for this ad… it’s disgusting, but I’ve come to expect nothing less these days.
Whoa…that’s just….man….
Well, that’s great to hear.
I agree, D—-… and is the rest of that sentiment that the earth is sentient enough to actually fight back?? I was really unaware that the earth was vindictive!
M. Night Shyamalalksjdflajan thinks so…
CMS2004: I think you can compare pearl harbor and 9/11, not on the circumstances, but on the psychological impact it had on the american people.
LOL, Pearce. Touche.
I do find it funny that if religious people claim disasters are Gods way to punish us(which I think is ridiculous) liberals call them hatemongers, but enviro-wacko’s imply that tsunami’s are the planets way to punish us and it is A-OK.
I’d be willing to bet that Osama and the Pips were salivating about Pearl Harbor on 9/10.
Twin Towers II was like attempt #4007 to declare war on the westernized world. The ants in my driveway have the same problem, they keep declaring war on me too.
No matter what you feel regarding the 9/11 attacks, this way is definitely not an indicated way to go. Look at this for example: http://planesofthought.com/ such a beautiful way to show your support to those who lost their lifes in the attacks.
You know I am so very sick of people saying that those on the left or those that are liberal aren’t traumatized by 9/11. I consider myself both of those things and just seeing the animation of this ad was enough to nearly make me physically ill to think of that day.
What I can’t comprehend is that after years of using basically fluffy advertising, what caused WWF to go this route? I mean did they hire some of the batshit crazy PETA people or what? Also, who in their right mind here in America would approve of that kind of an ad being released and knowing their thinking probably on 9/11 or something equally appalling?
I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything about this on any of the major news networks, right or left.