Monday, August 20, 2007

Paint it black, the Asshat edition

Straight from the Ted Danson acting school, we bring you this week's Asshat. Mind you it wasn't an easy selection, there were certainly some valid contenders and even some late arrivals over the weekend that made a mad dash for the title, such as the dwarf that glued his penis to a vacuum cleaner. Still, this just seemed far too good to pass up.

UNICEF in Germany wanted to bring attention to the plight of children in Africa. That in and of itself is a noble cause, but how they went about, maybe not so much. Rather than using some documentary footage for their campaign, or maybe some testimonials from people who live there or previously lived there, UNICEF decided the best way to illustrate the plight of African children was........to put a bunch of German children in black face. Yes, I am sure cultural understanding is definitely going to come about now that a bunch of white kids with mud smeared on their faces are on a billboard.

Thankfully the campaign was pulled, because as it turns out, some people found it offensive, imagine that! Still, it is the thought that counts and I thought this was Asshat worthy, so to quote Jean Luc Picard, "Make it so!", and thus you have this week's winner.

Ad Nauseum

UNICEF Paints it Blackface

unicef4_fresh.jpg
NEIN, DANKE UNICEF campaign
What do you get when you gather a group of adorable blond German kids, use mud to paint them in blackface, and then slap the pictures all over Deutschland? Lots of pissed off liberals for starters.

UNICEF Germany is the offending organization behind these PSAs showing "four German kids who appeal for solidarity with their contemporaries in Afrika." Originally meant to draw attention to Africa's education crisis, the ads have been pulled following public outcry.

We can only imagine the meeting in which this campaign was conceived.

Ad Man 1: "What better way to relate to African children and call attention to their plight than by smothering our kids' faces in mud?"

Ad Man 2: "How about reducing its entire population to dirty, neglected tots?"

Together: "Ja!"

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