Award bait. It's one of the most common causes of stupid nonprofit ads.
It works like this: Ad agencies pride themselves about their "creativity." But their clients rarely let them be as "creative" as they want to be. (Those annoying clients have this dumb need to actually get some kind of measurable results from their advertising dollars. The nerve!)
So how can they show off their true creativity?
Create really, really "creative" ads for clients that don't care about the actual effectiveness of those ads. Partly because they aren't sophisticated enough to know effective from ineffective, but mainly because they aren't paying for the work anyway. They're just pleased to end up with something cool they can show their friends.
And the agency gets "creative" that has a good chance of winning an award!
Like this spot for War Child:
(Or view it here on YouTube.)
The whole thing leads up to this punchline: For some children, fantasy is the only way to escape reality.
That may be true. But it has no bearing on anything. No action a viewer might take. It's just a clever way of making a point ... apropos of nothing.
The real achievement of this spot is not the message or the impact it might have on the real world. It's two towering achievements:
- It legally uses the Batman character.
- It legally uses a pop tune that you've actually heard before.
Congrats.
But why?
Effective fundraising is always and only about showing potential donors an action they can take. It's concrete, not abstract. It's action, not just ideas. It makes people say What can I do? not How did you do that?
Your job as a fundraiser is to empower donors to change the world. Not to help ad agencies win awards.
(Thanks to alert colleague Stephen Butler for the tip.)
More Stupid Nonprofit Ads.
from Future Fundraising Now http://ift.tt/2tiODXi
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