Red Cross brings the reality of war home
As part of the Australian Red Cross’ mandate to promote and educate the Australian public about the laws of war, better known as International Humanitarian Law, Melbourne’s The Fuel Agency has launched an integrated campaign ‘Even Wars Have Laws’ across Australia.
Together with an online component where Australians can have their say, cities around Australia have been adorned with an ‘in your face’ ambient campaign, bringing the reality of these laws closer to home by encouraging people to learn more about International Humanitarian Law.
According to a recent survey commissioned by the Australian Red Cross,40% of Australians believe it is okay to torture captured enemysoldiers, while 90% think the international laws of war need to bestrengthened.
Says Fuel Agency CEO, Tim Kidman: “With war being broadcast into ourfamily homes, we’ve become desensitised to issues which were once muchmore in our face. This campaign was created to challenge people’sperceptions and remind us of the importance and value of the Red Crossin protecting humanity.”
Campaign elements include the use of fake land mine fields in busy citystreets, reminding people that weapons such as these are banned. Lifesize cardboard cut-out school children carrying AK47 Assault Rifleshave also been strategically placed around city locations,communicating the illegality of using children to fight a war.Completing these elements, torture chairs have also been created,complete with fake blood and bindings, to reaffirm that it’s illegal totorture prisoners of war (or indeed anyone) under any circumstances.
The ‘Even Wars Have Laws’ campaign consists of a number of elementsthat reinforce the set of rules which aim to limit suffering andprotect the vulnerable during times of armed conflict. These GenevaConventions are championed by the Red Cross, which are universal andremind us of our common humanity.
Says the Fuel Agency ECD Rod Clausen: “Our aim was to bring the realityof war and the importance of these laws a little closer to home…. wewanted to get people talking. This meant using a form of communicationthat was more noticeable and engaged people in an active andconfronting manner.”
The ‘Even Wars Have Laws’ campaign will run this week only until Friday 19 February.
Agency: The Fuel Agency, Melbourne
Creatives: Simon Robins, Toby Blackler & Rod Clausen
Account Director: Mary Atley
97 Comments
Nice use of media and confronting. Good one guys!
The invasion of Iraq was ‘criminal’ as well according to the U.N. who never supported it. But hey, it’s easier in Australia to do ads with visuals about issues that’s generally from other third world countries.
11:36… While I agree completely with your comment about Iraq, don’t you think that issues like torture and young children fighting in wars are particularly prevalent (whether it’s the CIA’s ‘interrogation’ methods or the Afghan Rebels who recruit anyone that can pull a trigger?)
While its important to highlight these issues, it might be useful to remember that many of the multinational corporations and banks we do work for have a vested interest in prolonging these wars where children are used as soldiers.
While its important to highlight these issues, it might be useful to remember that many of the multinational corporations and banks we do work for have a vested interest in prolonging these wars where children are used as soldiers.
Bravo!
As a parent, I was shocked at seeing young children in school uniforms holding machine guns.
most of the photos are taken directly outside the agency….good use of free media I guess.
One day I see you chalking hop-scotch on the road near your agency, the next day it’s on campaign brief. Amazing how advertising works these days. I can only begin to imagine how many hundreds of UN delegates you have managed to communicate with.
Not so much a comment on the creative, as the campaign strategy.
There was a brief period during the early industrial revolution, where ‘wars had laws’. Before then, war was a nasty free-for-all, in which the rape and murder of civilians was simply part of the deal.
This notion of ‘fairness’ in war was on its last legs during WWI, and died completely and utterly during the Second World War: where many times more civilians died than combatants.
War is total, war is one series of horrible atrocities after another. This campaign seems to suggest that there is such a thing as ethical, clean wars… and wars that are somehow nastier and unethical.
But ultimately, when the shit hits the fan, a nation will throw its children into the lines. It will poison, burn, grind, crush and destroy the opponent. Are land mines worse than a cluster bomb or a fuel-air explosive?
All war is misery and suffering and death. Only the naive and those willfully seeking to lead a nation to war would pretend otherwise.
So basically, I think this campaign is interesting and probably impactful. But it’s ultimately full of shit.
well said 1.22.
If your going to cheat a stencil on a wall, it’s best to do it on a flat wall, not on brick.
That way you don’t give your photoshop effort away by no mortar gaps on the type.
But it is a good effort. Kudos.
lame.
Done before!
Landmine stickers were done about 10 years ago around City Square in Melbourne.
You walked across one and the adhesive made the flyer stick to your foot. Quite a good thought back then.
Wondering if these messages would have been more effective if they were all placed in different spots? The chairs torture message impacts on the effect of the child soldiers due to them being nearby (I can see them in the background of one of your shots). If you’re going to sneak up on the public, do it properly. You’ve pretty much negated your shock value by having them all in the same area.
That said there’s some nice stuff there that would be powerful in isolation. Well done.
Make War not Scam.
1:22 PM
Nations do fight wars according to laws. They are highly complex and get right down to the specific types of munitions they can use and even when they can be used. Indeed, militaries employ countless lawyers and other experts to analyse every mission to determine whether it conforms to the rules of war. So, I think you are very mistaken.
Look at the diplomatic fallout Israel has endured following its war in Gaza 12 months ago. There has been a detailed and highly contested UN inquiry and countless other reports and court actions all focusing on that country’s conduct vis-a-vis the accepted laws of war. Further, there is an ongoing debate around how Western democracies can fight irregular wars when one side is bound by those laws and one isn’t.
I find this campaign’s strategy very interesting, timely and thought-provoking but actually find the executions far less so.
and………….?
I think it looks great. Well done.
It’s very similar to what Save the Children did last year in train stations, particularly with a child and a gun. Obviously an issue that sadly, still needs to be addressed.
Scam mines affect all of us.
I saw this around Wynyard Station/York Street this morning. They even had hand drawn land mines in chalk on the pavement. I thought this was a really powerful statement and it really did make me think about the issue.
Well done. Love it.
I walk through the Rosella Complex most days.
At least 4 of the shots in this article are within a few yards of Fuel’s office. I know this because I saw them shooting this bullshit – they haven’t even bothered to wash away the chalk they used for that hopscotch execution, which has never had any signage on it.
This is how it looked in Sydney http://twitpic.com/13htst
Scam or otherwise, what’s the clever part?
I think it looks great. Well done.
It’s very similar to what Save the Children did last year in train stations, particularly with a child and a gun. Obviously an issue that sadly, still needs to be addressed.
Hang on.
So I see this chair right?
And it’s got blood on it.
And it’s got a sign that say’s ‘torture is never ok.’
And you know what I thought? It’s not. It’s bloody not on.
Then I saw this photoshopped stencil with a kid and a gun.
And I thought ‘NO!’
So you know what I did?
I stopped all wars right that afternoon. All of them. Afghanistan, Iraq. Even those nasty African ones we don’t hear about any more.
I just got so SICK of War I stopped them.
JOB DONE FUEL.
2.15… I’m not saying that nations aren’t SUPPOSED TO fight wars ‘morally’, because there’s a whole legion of folks at the United Nations devoted to that very cause… and all the nice nations sign documents to that effect.
I’m saying that the notion of ‘clean, ethical’ war is a nonsense… and talk of wars with rules is just propagating the myth that there can be clean wars. It’s just so much bullshit, and you can have as many well-meaning lawyers as you like. It doesn’t change the fact that there hasn’t yet been a war which hasn’t brought misery and suffering to the non-combatants of the nation in which it is being fought.
Even with the most sophisticated weapons systems, and with the best of intentions, the second Iraq conflict caused untold suffering to the civilian population. And that’s with a nation (the US) actually trying very, very hard and doing their very best to limit the effects of the campaign to to military and industrial targets.
Fact is, it just can’t be done. And anyone who espouses the myth of a clean war, lacks any kind of understanding of what war actually is.
I think this campaign is dumb, because it suggests to the audience that you can run a war ‘with rules’, which suggests that there can be Good Wars (as opposed to Bad Wars, I guess).
Just stupid. IMO.
Wonder how child soldiers living in Australia now as refugees feel about seeing this?
Fighting dirty is fighting dirty, wether it’s a game of pool or a world war.
And really 1:22, if you don’t see the difference between kicking the crap out of someone when they’re down or giving them a chance to surrender, you don’t understand a fair fight.
Although, most fights I see these days are the same. There’s no honour anymore. Just rage.
Oh, just while we’re at it.
I saw this on a ‘well known’ advertising site:
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/861/25737macbookairpapercut.jpg
I thought – nice ad, wonder how they got it through Apple.
But go to the agency website and you see this version:
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/7502/screenshot20100216at324.png
So I pronounce thee LOWE MENA, MUMBAI.
C’mon, Guys! The retouching, the hastily erected cut outs, the hop scotch, the breeze blocks, it all smacks of unreality. They couldn’t even be bothered to walk more than a few streets from their agency to take shots of the work!
first thought creative, UNICEF did it much better
http://toybotstudios.blogspot.com/2010/01/unicefs-ad-campaign-turn-soldiers-back.html
I think the problem is the kids don’t actually look like soldiers. Rough them up a bit. Give them cuts and bruises. They’re just not believable.
you don’t play Call of Duty then 1:22pm.
Torture is never ok?
What a line, and here I was thinking it was all dandy. Thanks for putting that straight.
Looks a lot like the “Save the Children” campaign that toured the nation last year.
@mark,
What relevance does it have where they shot the initial photos?
3:26
There’s no honour any more? When has there been honour? Back in the mythical days of king arthur? A fair fight? War isn’t the UFC.
The Romans used to crucify POWs. The Crusaders committed horrendous massacres. So has Ghengis Kahn, Vlad Dracul and basically any other war mongering sovereign or head of state, Obama included. The suffering of civilians is as old as war. Don’t believe me? Read the Iliad by Homer.
Hey, how’s this for fair: have you ever done any work for Motorola? Many people have it on good authority that they help make landmines.
Fair is a word. War is a behaviour.
Like some people mentioned previously, this is very similar to Save the Childrens campaign from just last year. Nonetheless its a good attempt to draw peoples attention to such important issues. The more the better!
Anyone ever hear that bill hicks comment:
“Think of the children? What – they reach a certain age and they’re off your fuckin love list? You either love people of all ages or you shut the fuck up!”
I think that’s worth mentioning.
No?
Anybody?
We let little fourteen-year-old boys slip through the gaps and enlist during WW1. Just putting it out there…
Ever bought Adidas shoes?
They were started by Adolf and Rudi Dassler.
And you know what one of the first products they produced was?
(This is a public record by the way.)
The Panzerschreck anti-tank weapon. As used by the Nazis against our grandads.
Living in Australia i’m used to seeing signs of war/torture/abuse everywhere. Why just the other day as i was ordering my soy chai, this guy practically waterboarded my after slipping and spilling his triple filtered Aqua beverage right on my face. It was just horrible.
Me likey.
I like this ads – there is nothing quite so shocking than seeing a white kid with a machine gun. BUT the philosophy is bent, how can I sitting in my office stop this. More so how can the red cross? They are an awesome charity but they generally clean up the mess rather than stop it. I want to donate money to the person who stops it. Who is that guy?
I walked through Central Station yesterday and saw the ‘war kids’ left behind in the park.
Asians were putting their arm around them having their photos taken smiling!
The chalk on the footpath had worn off and all I saw was BANG.
Guess the agency had set up and taken their photos when I arrived 2 minutes later.
It all makes sense now.
3:19 PM
Wars are conducted within rules of conduct. However horrible modern-day conflicts are, imagine how much more horrendous they would be if there were no laws that were followed at all. The US would have just nuked Iraq or carpet bombed it indiscriminately, which it didn’t. It may have got some things wrong and there was undoubtedly very significant human misery, but without a legal and moral framework in place, it would have been so much worse.
In terms of the work, it simply relies on the emotional resonance of the subject matter and chucks a few platitudes around. With a topic so inherently powerful, you need to do so much more.
I’m not going to join any kind of debate here.
But what I will say is that it is bloody stupid to try and pass off photoshopped work as something that actually happened.
And here of all places…
Cassie, I don’t know who that guy is but I’m sure he has a lot to do with diamonds. Or banks. Maybe he’s a CEO of some unscrupulous multinational.
I have absorbed everyones comments and love the discussion and passion it has evoked. Isn’t that what our job is about, (at least when we have a chance) to evoke emotion?
My first reaction to seeing it this morning in Sydney was that I loved it, but after reading some peoples comments it did make me think, okay fair enough, what is the call to action after you see it? How can I stop war, how can I stop landmines? I can’t. I then thought about the fact that this posting has received a lot more comments from us all than your average post.
I searched the ads above to try and find the CTA and found this…
“Says the Fuel Agency ECD Rod Clausen: “Our aim was to bring the reality of war and the importance of these laws a little closer to home…. we wanted to get people talking…”
If it was to get people talking, isn’t that what they have done? This morning before I saw this campaign, I didn’t know that the Geneva Convention does not permit children under 15 to fight in a war. I also did not know land mines were banned.
Now I do.
Does it change anything, no, but how does change start anyway, it can start with knowledge.
to K
“And here of all places…”
Here?! Huh? Who the fuck cares “here”?
5:35.
Can I slightly rearrange the quote?
“Our aim was to bring the reality of war and the importance of these laws a little closer to home through the cheapest mediums possible. Our photoshopped images and one-off chairs in locations close to our agency will definitely get award juries talking.”
Nothing like a good charity to get a little bit of metal eh?
Sure beats iSnack 2.0. But I guess you guys are too busy bagging other agencies.
i saw the hopscotch/bang chalk execution while walking home through North Perth yesterday. It really stood out but as there was no other detail attached I just assumed it was some random art for the Festival of Perth which is on now. I love the execution but not sure why it was left unlabelled?
it is executed better then “save the who?”
i’m just stunned there are so many suits that care about dodgy photoshop retouching…
Hey – we’re glad to see people are taking such an interest – whether it’s positive feedback or shitcanning it.
OK guys, so some of these shots were taken to brief the ambient installers and sometimes torrential rain f*&ks up the odd piece – some of it gets nicked (a good thing) and some of it gets ripped down by the council. But hey, that’s part of the package with ambient communication… And there’s still a few executions to go live yet.
But you know what? Click the links for a snapshot of the activity from Melbourne to Perth, Adelaide to Brisbane in the last 48 hours…
http://jalbum.net/browse/user/album/493673/
http://jalbum.net/browse/user/album/493687/
We’ve got plenty more if you’re interested – just drop past and ask…
P.S. Anyone for a (friendly) beer?
5:35, I thought this was ‘common’ knowledge. Not conspiracy theories or bad stories you tell around campfires. The real shit that you read in books, not The Herald Sun or the Daily Tele. There’s no page 3 girls in real life outside Australia.
Personally, this conversation is better than the average CB, so thanks bloggers for raising it a notch, but sadly, the ads are pretty shit. As I said earlier, it’s common knowledge. Kinda like the google ad for the super bowl. “Oh really, I can find shit on Goolgle?!?!”
/Facepalm
Was this done for the agency or the client?
It’s the Y&R Melbourne “international campaign to ban land mines” campaign from so long ago it was Y&R, not GPY&R.
47 comments, hey. Twice the number that probably saw it in public.
This campaign states the obvious. War, torture and kids with guns are not OK. These are things that we all agree with already, so what is the point of this communication?
It lacks any consumer insight, is completely devoid of a creative strategy and the executions are a disconnected mess. They all feel like they’ve been done before in some form. There is no original technique or unusual use of media.
It’s a really poor example of old-school ambient. And the installations, wouldn’t last two minutes before someone steals a chair or a cardboard rifle, or they just blow over in the wind.
It’s just amateurish. Guys, you can do better than this. And if you can’t, step aside because there are plenty of AWARD school students that definitely can.
“Torture is never Ok”….zoinks! who would have thunk it!
We really learn something new evreyday don’t we.
whatever, we want toyota.
As I judge the work, I always find myself trying to imagine what the ubiquitous line art in an average AWARD school folio would look like fleshed out.
Job done, Fuel.
It’s all claptrap.
1. Your donation to the Red Cross will not stop Timmy picking up an AK-47
2. The wall was most likely photoshopped because it is illegal to paint or post adhesives on a wall, but the agency most likely photoshopped it anyway to sell us one more idea. This undoes ANY good intent the agency had by making their ulterior motive obvious. Yes, agencies have a right to try to win awards for pro bono work, but by faking an execution, you make us doubt ALL the executions. Couple that with the ambient bomb outside your own offices, the poor consideration in Sydney (http://twitpic.com/13htst), the shitty execution I personally witnessed in Wynyard Park, and the poor logic of the campaign argument, and you’ve given me the conclusion it’s all a big fat wank.
I saw this in Wynyard and took a leaflet.
The call to action? Buy a T-shirt which says “Even wars have laws”.
I don’t want a t-shirt which says that because I wouldn’t wear it. Nor do I wish to waste money on t-shirt that I don’t want so part of the cost of it can go to a charitable cause.
If the campaign aim is to build public sentiment to the cause, the t-shirt is not going to do it.
About as useful as Earth Hour.
Man, we all know how clients are – particularly charities. I reckon this is a pretty good effort for Red Cross
If the idea was to get to tongues wagging, then I’d reckon they’d be happy?
Radio, Newspaper, Blogs….nice job Fuel!
I don’t care if the idea was to ‘get tongues wagging’. If it was the agency should have challenged the brief and asked what the point of wagging tongues was.
why are all of the children white?
5:54 PM
I think plenty of people “here” care about an ambient execution being faked with photoshop.
End.
Using photos of children in war to win awards is morally bankrupt.
Fuel and the Red Cross should hide their faces in shame.
This is the worst ambient ad I’ve seen since I was at Whybins. Some nutcase smeared shit on the wall in the gents. Great concept but shit execution.
Advertising industry folk are largely too reductionist to try and tackle issues of morality. They shouldn’t be given so much voice when so often they have so little to say.
Those kids scared the living crap out of me when I was walking down to my car the other night!
Some people just don’t get ambient.
School boy error (no pub intended). BTL agency gets all excited with a pro-bono client thinking ‘here comes an award’ and just shines a light on what they can’t do…ideas. Stick to DM boys, keep off the blog and stop the graffiti outside JWT
I get ambient – it’s that café music cd sounds somewhere between trip-hop and chill-out.
BTL from JWT??!! Hahahahahahah brilliant.
Outside JWT? Oh, you mean their new offices – guess that loss of $255M meant smaller offices and precious egos.
What a bunch of fruit loops! How many of you have ever been in a war zone? I suspect nobody, yet you’re all experts on what happens in a war because you’ve watched a few hours of CNN. You lot remind me of a bunch of old men in a pub thinking they know how to guide their team to a championship when the high of their playing/coaching career was Sunday social league, cigarettes and a can of VB at half time.
Nonsense.
Ambient in Perth?
It’s a population of what?… 23 people and a few dogs and cats?
9.36PM,
I’m sorry, there’s no polite way to say it, but you’re a moron.
It IS possible, believe it or not, to be knowledgeable on a subject, without having first-hand experience. Do you think, for example, that Max Hastings (the world’s foremost war historian) knows nothing of the reality of armed conflict, just because he was fortunate enough to never have to fight in one?
One of Australia’s most successful coaches of international swimmers can’t even swim himself.
I could give you a hundred more examples, but you’re not worth the effort.
Suffice to say that insight, knowledge, empathy and understanding can be gained through means other than first-hand experience. But only if you’re intelligent and intuitive and empathetic enough to actually connect the dots.
Just because you’re not, doesn’t mean others don’t have this skill.
A little story in support of 11:23 response to 9:36’s silly comment.
Once upon a time, everyone in advertising was being urged to do EST [later called Forum] a sort of ‘get in touch with your feelings’ movement run like a pyramid selling enterprise. A very well-known Sydney creative went to an intro night but decided it wasn’t for him. On leaving he was confronted by an EST evangelist who asked him why he was leaving. The Sydney creative said he “just didn’t think it was for him”. The PEST [as they became to be known] responded with “but how will you know if you never try it?”. To which our Sydney creative replied, “mate, I don’t think I’m gay either, but I don’t need to get fucked up the arse to find out”.
Here’s a question I just have to ask –
Why the F^&k do Red cross and I quote “educate the Australian public about the laws of war, better known as International Humanitarian Law”?
Because we us Australians are such f%^king war criminals. Damn it, now I am going to have to take my kids’ machine guns away and send them back to school.
I am pretty sure most Australians think war is bad, kids fighting wars = bad etc so now we all know its BAD now what? You want us to ring a few African warlords and see if they can take it easy?
What is this sh*t about and what do they want us to do?
Actually we broke international customary law when we invaded Iraq by violating the Hague Convention 1907. That pretty much means our legislature and executive branches at the time could be charged and convicted as war criminals.
@4.02PM
Ummmm…….they want your money so that they may do something about it?!!
Just a thought, you should try it….
I’ll bet some of the people arguing over the morality and ethics here love playing shoot-em-up computer games.
Really well thought out, interesting use of ambient media and surely got people talking.
To the people verbally bashing the agency – you should definitely incorporate some of the creativity from your smartass comments into your mediocre work…. Just a suggestion.
8:53
Are you fully aware of the reality of scam ambient, or are you a client?
Here’s how it works.
1. Agency produces a print ad / banner. You know, the stuff we’re paid for.
2. Agency decides this is an ideal award opportunity for scam ambient.
3. Agency knocks up some cheap, cardboard images, some photoshopped stuff or (ideally) some ‘chalk on pavement stuff that takes minutes to do.
4. Agency takes shots of said ambient, generally close to their agency.
5. Agency removes ambient.
6. Agency submits ambient to the press, alongside a heartwarming release about trying to stop war, whaling, child abuse etc.
7. Agency, more often than not, gets busted. (Unless they’re in NZ, where this sort of thing is actually quite cleverly done.)
With so many inspired comments from ‘creatives’ and suits who clearly know the brief and background so well, it’s no surprise that Australia is awash with Cannes gold. After all, it’s this sort of constructive criticism that not only benefits the industry as a whole, but more importantly provides a sound creative foundation so we can all (possibly) learn a thing or two along the way. Remember kids, knowledge is power. Keep those razor-sharp strategic insights coming – this approach guarantees Australia can continue to remain the creative powerhouse it’s known for throughout the world. It’s no wonder i still call Australia home.
@12.48 sounds a bit shit.
12:48.
One could argue that Australia is winning more Cannes Gold than ever before, so this critical thinking is probably making all the newbs and oldies alike aware that just because the CD thinks it’s good, doesn’t make it so.
That or there’s a category for everything these days at Cannes.
Fkn money hungry cnuts
@ 11:37… Maybe so, but one should do some research first. I’ve read here, and in papers around the country, about these so called ‘localised’ executions.
And, if you bothered to follow the link:
http://drop.io/arcsoldiers
I see that they also had a guerilla execution down at St Kilda Beach to finish the campaign….
Perhaps the frustration due to a lack of awards on that shelf behind you is better directed at the brief in front of you.
Just a thought,
It seems this campaign appeared just in the nick of time. I was going to enlist both of my kids in the army next week. But now that I’ve seen this shocking campaign I won’t be sending them to war. Thanks Fuel!
@February 19, 2010 11:37 AM
Scam ambient that occurred in most major cities around the country..
Wow, that is some dedication to scam RIGHT THERE!
They might as well have, you know, actually deployed the ambient to those locations.
I have trawled through the comments on this campaign and must say I am impressed by the passion evoked. Either way.
And I do hope that all comments have been circulated widely because at the bases is the important message of this campaign. So despite some of the comments here being, on the face of it, negative ‘advertising’ critique, I am thankful to say that I have learnt a few new things of war at 3am this Sunday morning, and for that I say good advertising.
Ps. I will never look at hop-scotch the same.
So anything’s true just because someone said it.
Come on people, slow day at work? It’s ok, it’s not crap, it’s not great, move on.