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Are charity ads too exploitative?

Posted in Media, Creative, Latest reporters' blogs May 14th, 2009 by admin

We at Baby Creative challenge the major players in the charity sector to rethink their advertising strategies, eschewing the traditional shock and awe tactics that have become such a staple of the sector’s creative and working towards a more positive, less exploitative aesthetic.

The problem for us is that the conventional approach of much advertising in the sector seems to be essentially negative and indeed exploitative - with audiences being bludgeoned through feelings of guilt and horror into parting with their credit card details, or to sign up for information or to help out.

Two of the worst offenders are Barnardo’s and the NSPCC; while we accept that these tactics have indeed reaped the benefits of greater visibility and engendering public support, these charities and others who use the same ad strategy are risking a backlash from a UK public which can’t stomach the tales of woe and hardship that are presented to it.

Wouldn’t it be a pleasant surprise if a charity told us some positive news for a change, or at least stop surrounding all their messages within a context of extreme negativity? We believe that our own work with Action for Children suggests that another way is possible.

Our spots for AfC featured real kids talking about their lives, but focussed instead on how the children were recovering from their experiences. By being forward-facing, and addressing what the charity actually did rather than the abuse suffered by the children, the adverts were able to engage the audience rather than shock them.

Early figures suggest that our approach has worked: 20 per cent of respondents said they would consider donating to the charity, and ad awareness levels reached nine per cent - which is a great result for a brand with only one per cent spontaneous awareness prior to launch. Encouragingly, donations to the charity spiked, as did conversions on the site for fostering and adoption.

And we don’t think that we and AfC are alone in rethinking our approach, as other organisations have also begun to soften their advertising - Oxfam’s ‘Humankind’ campaign from last year is another example of a more upbeat and positive take as is last year’s ‘Creature Discomforts’ campaign from Leonard Cheshire.

We’re confident that what we’re doing is right for the client, the public and those that the charities are trying to help. What do you think?

Steve Grime is creative partner at Baby Creative