The Problems of Donation Advertisements - written by 10603 Min Jung Yeoun

The Problems of Donation Advertisements

written by 10603 Min Jung Yeoun

We watch advertisements encouraging people to donate. They always show children living in a poor country. They are always sick and undernourished. These advertisements trigger viewers’ sympathy and emotional responses. By exploiting these feelings, they get people to donate. This kind of advertisement is called Poverty Pornography.

The example of these advertisements: Unicef

This kind of advertising was first used in the 1980s by the U.K. charity Disasters Emergency Committee for its African Emergency. These advertisements shocked people and succeeded in collecting ＄23 million in donations.

 

After the campaign ended successfully, other advertisers and charities like World Vision, Concern Worldwide and Unicef followed suit because this kind of advertising can generate a huge collection in a short time by people who feel sympathy for the poor.

 

But this type of dramatic advertisement is a controversial topic.

 

Poverty Pornography can cause prejudice. The people in the advertisements are shown as people who can not do anything to overcome their circumstance. People who are watching or seeing these ads are made to think that if nobody cares about them.

 

It is definitely important that we should help them, but we shouldn’t think of them as not being able to exist or live without us. The prejudice of these ads can restrict our view about their ability and make us think that they are incapable people.

 

The advertisements also produce racial prejudice. They delude us into thinking that Africa is the continent of death and that all Africans are poor. For instance, a European woman feeds African child like a dog in the advertisement for ‘Feed a Child.’

 

If they saw these advertisements, would they still be happy since they can receive lots of donations?

 

Their self-esteem would decrease and fall into despair. Their appearance is shown intact without considering their rights. If they were to see these advertisements about themselves, they could lose hope, because they would realize the prejudice.

 

Poverty Pornography are fictitious advertisements. The advertisement named ‘Let’s save Africa-Gone wrong’ satirized the fabrication of the ads. Donation advertisements have to be authentic because they are based on genuine circumstance. But the fictitious ads show exaggerated situation, then people can’t donate with sincere feelings.

 

Lastly, the donations can’t be sustainable. People just donate because of impulsive feelings. Soon, they will be desensitized to this kind of advertising. Then the donations will decrease. In the long term, this is not efficient.

 

In Korea, viewers commented that these drastic advertisements are inappropriate and uncomfortable to watch. According to minutes of Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) on July 11th, 2018, there were four cases using this kind of advertising including the international relief organization, World Vision. KCSC was contacted about the advertisements, because appearances of people were exposed only for the donations, and the public was not informed how the donation were to be used.

 

KCSC decided to continue monitoring other advertisements for this behavior as well. To make continuous donations and protect the people’s rights, it’s time to show the positive effects and hope of the donations in the advertisements.