Horrible, Repugnant 9/11 Ad: The Video!

i'm a tad confused. how does conservation stop tectonic shifts again? also, is anyone at all so deeply in denial that they're not on some level aware that the metereological shit has already hit the fan, and that no matter how many prii we drive, we're already past the apex on this particular roller coaster? all we have to concern ourselves with now is throwing our hands up and screaming.
frankly, it's a load off; i've been working my ass off to stop global warming for 20 years. so, no, i don't think it's in bad taste. just moronic, and on many levels.

levari

@Nasdaf: Your entire point is that the quantity of human deaths is always a meterstick for measuring a tragedy. Plus, you are also claiming that you can essentially exploit one tragedy to describe another.

Both these ideas are disgusting.

fugit

The print ad made more sense, but the fact that these were fake ads created solely for award show glory makes them both stupid as shit. Brazilian ad agencies are well known for making up fake ads because it's incredibly hard to call them on it-most of the judges have no idea if the ad actually ran in south america or not.

And if that was a rough draft of a commercial, I've got a bridge for sale. The effects in that ad are the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars so it was hardly "rough." Fuck you DDB Brasil, you got caught and you deserve everything you get.

TheMediaMob

A better approach might have been showing the people jumping out of the WTC and then showing people jumping out of buildings all over manhattan. That'd be gnarly.

ihatetwitter

@Astigmatism: Well, actually... how many US ad companies have used images of terrible tragedies overseas to sell products. (Lots, in case you are wandering.)

And while 9/11 was a tragedy, it was a drop in the ocean when it comes to disaster, suffering and terror around the globe.

That doesn't make it excusable, but there is absolutely no denying that a lot of hypocrisy is on show when some people get over sensitive to portrayal of the attack.

And lets not forget McCain used big, backdropped imagery of 9/11 on his campaign trail. That was more tasteless than this ad by a long shot.

J France

@yojeezy: I think some people do regard the Tsunami as being less tragic. I'm sure many people devastated by 9/11 don't even know what they're talking about (and vice versa).

What's a more telling point is all the terror and disaster than never reaches domestic ears in the US, if they used a figure from, say, the Congo christmas day 2008 massacres, then the message might have more impact.

But then it'd have nothing to do with WWF. Just bias towards caring more about bad things happening to white people, which is a whole different issue.

J France

@Nasdaf: What they aren't grasping is that no one caused the tsunami. It was not a choice by religious lunatics.

Lots more people died in tsunami, but what about earthquakes? They've killed more people than tsunamis have. Or what about meteors? They wiped out the dinosaurs and might wipe us out in the future. Sorry, but it actually is fucktardery. Zealots and nature are very different things. It's not about offending, it's about logic.

sloanish

@Nasdaf: The scope of the damage caused by the tsunami was absolutely incomprehensible. Which is exactly the problem with this ad--if the tsunami is so important, why do you even need the 9/11 imagery for impact?

To me, the ad goes something like this:
"The 2004 tsunami brought indescribable destruction and grief to a large portion of the world. It may well have been related to human-caused climate change. And it was way worse than 9/11. So I guess you shouldn't be whining about 9/11. In fact, when it comes to 9/11, your shit isn't shit. So, stop your griping about 9/11...wait, what were we talking about?"

Does this mean Al-Qaeda caused the tsunami too? I'm so confused.

Fancy Pants

"Our planet is trying to kill the fuck out of you. So, conserve it."

Not sold on that one, DDB Brasil. Kthx.

This was a boneheaded decision. It isn't bad taste, it's just plain stupid & illogical.

So many problems with the entire premise of this piece of shit. For one, does it really make any sense to quantify tragedy like this? I've this sort of thing several times, primarily in the foreign press over the years. Does anyone really think the tsunami wasn't a horrible tragedy? Does anyone reasonable really think the 9/11 deaths are "more tragic" or "less tragic" based on how many deaths occurred in catastrophe X or war Y? If one wants to get quantitative, well then let's compare the loss of earning potential of the 9/11 victims compared to the tsunami victims. It's an equally stupid, meaningless exercise as this ad. Another thing - what the fuck is the need for showing an animated 9/11 if they really are comparing scales of tragedy? There's no fucking point - it's just 9/11 porn, images meant to be titillating, provocative. It reminds me of the time I saw one of my German friends about a month after 9/11 with a copy of Der Spiegel that was like 90% glossy photos of the attacks and aftermath. It struck me as incredibly shallow to People-ize something so terrible for an audience that was for the most part rather removed from the event. This is way worse. Fucktards indeed.

yojeezy

@curiousgeorgiana: That's the part that I don't understand. "Nature is powerful. Respect it." Um, okay... I'm respecting nature by not burning down the woods behind my house or selling it off to build a Wal-Mart. Strangely enough, the fires in L.A. haven't stopped, and I'm pretty sure there is probably another hurricane brewing out over the ocean. What more do I need to do?

@Astigmatism: Agreed...with that reasoning, it would be okay for the U.S. to make commercials about terrorist attacks in other countries. Hey, just another world event, right?

mharker

incredible ad campaign. very eye-opening and gut-punching. calling it horrible/tasteless/fucktardery is the inability to grasp the scope of the tsunami and the events that surround it

the print ad is better than the video - says more with less. the video isnt even well edited - and the soundeffects at the end - come on.

They have the angle of the second plane all wrong. It came in more from the southwest. SHEESH!

mackensie

Well, since I started crying while watching the ad, I'd say it's maybe just a tad too soon. I'll be sure and send DDB Brasil my therapist's bills for reimbursement. Fucktards.

@wasurhandle: I know you're not defending them, so don't take this as an attack on you, but I don't really give a shit whether or not someone in another country thinks it was a big deal based on their own worldview. I wouldn't create an ad for lung cancer research by showing a massive fucking tsunami bearing down on a whole bunch of villagers with the tagline "Lung cancer kills five times more people every year than the 2005 tsunami," because it's completely tasteless and insensitive, whether or not I or anyone I know felt the impact of the tsunami in any especially personal way. These guys really don't deserve ever to get another contract.

Astigmatism

@wasurhandle: You summed it up very nicely. 9/11 was horrible but it is true that many more people have died in other tragedies. I agree with what you say about keeping in mind how other nations view the event. Still, I don't think it is appropriate to use these sort of things for marketing purposes, non-profit or not.

@throwdetta: I tried to get something going along a waterboarding/tsunamis line, but I got nothing. I rest at your comment.

Astigmatism

@wasurhandle: Seriously. Also, how am I supposed to stop a Tsunami? Even if the ad weren't offensive, it would still be ineffective.

I think we also have to consider how other countries view our tragedy. Maybe it's just another world occurrence for them, most of whom have had major bloodshed on their soil because of war or terrorism within the last fifty-sixty years. Whereas we're sorta new in the game, in the crudest term possible.

I agree the commercial is in extremely poor taste. The point is you can't really compare one with the other. One was an act of human hatred, whereas the Tsunami was created by an earthquake underwater. No shit nature's powerful, but it isn't emotionally driven.

I just think it's interesting to consider how and why people could think this would appeal to anyone in the world in the first place. Writing it off as just a rough draft shows they don't really think it's such a big deal.

Also it didn't look very rough drafty.

wasurhandle

tasteless...and horrible for someone that was here when this happened.

Heywoodjablome

That was, well...okay, how come King Kong was not on top of one of those skyscrapers? The monkey of Outraged Nature shaking his fist at the airplanes of Environmental Exploitation.

ZacharySkunk

Even the panda at the end is like, WTF?

você fala crazy?

Absofuckinglutely repugnant.

I think this video is freaking cool. And so do you, Gawker, or you wouldn't have posted it.

I think this Ecuadorian singer treated the tragic events of that day with suitable sensitivity in this sombre ballad.

soonbanned

You Americans just don't get it. All these negative comments just go to show how much you guys lack perspective. How many of you complained over for example Generation Kill? You know, turning your illegal war that has killed 100s of thousands (if not millions) into a nice little piece of entertainment. And now you cry over a commercial that tries to give you some perspective on things..

truthisapplesucks

I don't get it -- where's the Burger King?

hilikusopus

@truthisapplesucks: I think Generation Kill showed how fucked up the war was (is) and not glorified it. Where else are we gonna see something like that- certainly not in our crappy media.

pastoralia

If anything, this just proves that the WWF KNEW about the ads and "greenlit" them. No advertising company would actually go into production on a TV spot without someone at the parent company signing off on it.

I work in TV Commercial/PSA production, so I'm familiar with the process. Usually clients have several stages to "sign off" on a project: concept first, then script, then rough cut, then the final spot.

Clearly someone at WWF signed off on the concept, and script, if not the "rough cut". That's at least $60,000 in animation/rendering time right there.

aedude01

What is repugnant is the time that has passed since without a big ass building giving the finger to the terrorists.

Let's make a film about the ineptness and waste that has kept the WTC site a giant hole in the ground. Calling Michael Moore.

I see this ad has received a lot of criticism here, but I have to admit: I do get the point it's making, and I'm not likely to forget it soon.

@J France: Im not saying you are wrong, but I can't think of any US companies using terrible events to sell anything. Can you give an example?

@skahammer: Hundreds of thousands of years ago there was an event that killed approximately 99% of the world's population, leaving only about 10,000 humans to start over. Should we create an ad belittling the tsunami by showing that?

"My disaster's bigger than your disaster" is both childish and misses the point completely.

holy god i shit my pants... for panda bears?

@Sidwell Enemies: This was the plot of not only this commercial but also "The Happening."

'Nuff said?

@aedude01: people make spec ads all the time. i work in advertising, and my roommate works in tv production for a major agency, so i've got a pretty solid handle on the process as well.

yes, it's expensive, but agencies will make ads like this for pitches and awards shows.

i find it pretty highly unlikely that the WWF greenlit this concept or execution.

take a look back at ads like the JC Penny teen sex debacle that happened not too long ago. this is relatively common practice.

Cosmonautical

@ChillbearLatrigue: "The fact that someone decided to exploit September 11 to push their own agenda is inexcusable."

Agreed, but this ad agency is hardly the first to do it.

i mean while we're at it, lets rank all of the natural/human-caused disasters and wars throughout history. that way everybody who has suffered from numbers 2-10000000000000 can feel good since at least they weren't #1. thats logical, right?

flyfrog29

Shall we expect to look forward to their next tsunami-related ad showing the blast rising from Hiroshima, which only immediately killed 1/4 to 1/3 the people the tsunami did? Or possibly the Israeli government, for example, can poo-poo the tsunami by posting Holocaust-themed ads?

I have no idea where they are going with this. Back to the drawing board is my fevrent hope.

"My disaster is bigger" only works if you're one of the worthless shitbags responsible for "2012."

RollsRoyceRevenge

@PamBeesley:
How about charity ads which feature starving Africans? Landmine victims?

Bruck

and yet we can chuckle over the Titanic disaster

ambitiondude

@NGPatel: We have absolutely no control over tsunamis. Beach front property is beautiful, but can also be dangerous is the only thing that I can take away from this.

@Skahammer: The ad was reprehensible. This point could have been made a number of different ways. The fact that someone decided to exploit September 11 to push their own agenda is inexcusable.

Gotta admit - I like it. Controversial and perhaps a questionable analogy - but I get the point clearly around the sense of alarm we're missing around environmental impact.

PontiusPirate

Can we bring back the weekly summary of unapproved comments? Because some of these crap comments are CROMMIE worthy

@J France: Hm, yes, I'm wondering. As PamBeesley says, please give us one other example of an ad that shows terrible tragedies overseas (i.e. people dying) to sell products.

And showing starving orphans for Save the Children doesn't count. It's one thing to show a tragedy and ask people to help prevent it, quite another to show a tragedy only to say it pales in significance to something else.

Astigmatism

@Nasdaf: Sorry to jump on the bandwagon of people countering your little Don Draper soliloquy, but I'm calling bullshit. Agencies don't say whether their campaigns work or not--the AUDIENCE does.

If people are "calling it horrible/tasteless/fucktardery" it isn't because of their "inability to grasp the scope of the tsunami and the events that surround it," it's DDB BRASIL's inability to properly COMMUNICATE it. There are a million other ways they could have created a baseline for comparison to shock us with the magnitude of human suffering from the Tsunami, but they went this route. It's a fail. It's a big fat fucking asshole of a fail.

@Nasdaf: Not to deny the incomprehensible scope of the Asian Tsunami, but there are other ways to make the same point. As an ad it's a cheap shot, it's expoitative, and it's incredibly offensive to anyone who lived through, or lost someone in, the attacks.

lionel-mandrake

@GretchenGebeh: Well said.

@VioletJagan: Yes. Duh.

charliebabbles

Wait. So are we at war with tsunamis now?

Bulkington

Making a forced, clunky, ineffective ad is bad enough. But to make one that also exploits 9/11 represents a new level of incompetence.

@Cosmonautical: It's possible it's a spec, but it's pretty polished for that. Considering WWF is now admitting that "people on both sides crossed the line" on the print ad, and they're both refusing to talk/admit that this too was done by them, I'd say it's a "rough cut" of a spot that was to air. It may very well have been in the works for a award show. It wouldn't surprise me....

:)

aedude01

@soonbanned: I'm pretty sure this is just how they report the news in Ecuadorrrr.

CoffeyWasHere

Whoops--double post.

RollsRoyceRevenge

So, If I recycle, there won't be anymore tsunamis? That was bad.

Completely and utterly horrifying...nothing else to be said.

alboy2

@soonbanned: the absolute shittiest exploitation yet..

yankeefan1959

@PontiusPirate: Agreed. I've never understood why we aren't allowed to point out that many, many worse things happen than 9/11, and that some of them are (somewhat) preventable.

queenie