I believe that no one missed what has created a rather big controversy last week:  the Tsunami 9/11 ad created by DDB Brazil for WWF Brazil.

Months after running only once in a small Sao Paulo newspaper, the press ad has come back and been exposed to global condemnation and critics all over the social web with regards to the ‘poor taste’ its shockvertising approach.

What was condemned ? Using images of dozens of planes about to crash into New York City skyscrapers on 9/11 to illustrate the scale of the lives lost in the 2004 Asian tsunami… (See below). Definitely in the logic of comparing death tolls, the text says: “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.”

WWF Brazil and DDB Brazil first denied being responsible of this ad, before finally admitting it, while a a video version of the ad was appearing online…adding more to public outrage and DDB / WWF’s discredit. I will not go into the details but it appears that this ad was a pure ‘scam’ used to win prizes at  advertising festivals and so forth.

But, is it really a good ad ?

What I am here more interested about is the ad itself, and its message. And how effectively such message can reach its target audience.

As you can see, the ad  uses imagery and icons that link to an event that shocked public opinion and that is now deeply embedded into our cultural representations and emotions. But we have been knowing for quite some time now that fear-inducing representations of climate change can be very counterproductive, as  fear is generally an ineffective tool for motivating genuine personal engagement, i.e. the public might think “It is too late”, “We are all going to die”.

As I wrote about it few times already, it is more effective to talk to individuals’ everyday emotions and concerns in  order to be the most engaging, that is to say  not only raising awareness but also ultimately changing behaviors and opinions.

Furthermore, the link between the Asian tsunami and climate change / environmental degradation has never been clearly made and scientifically approved as it resulted of an earthquake. The analogy used here seems a little ‘awkward’ and might create even more confusion.

9/11, a commonly used imagery in advertising

I made some research and I actually found out that the September 11 attacks have be widely used in advertising in order to deliberately shock the general public and draw attention to issues that often remained ignored or even denied.

This is especially the case with social and environmental issues, as in 2004, when MTV launched an advertising campaign to draw attention to the issue of anger in the world. Again, it seems that it was some sort of ‘scam ad’ as the three print ads ran only once in a Brazilian magazine..and finally got a Bronze prize at the Cannes Festival. (see below)

Text next to the towers: 2863 deaths
Text next to the man: 40 million HIV infected in the world.
“The world united against the terrorism should do the same against AIDS”

Text next to the towers: 2863 deaths
Text next to the boy: 824 million undernourished people in the world
“The world united against the terrorism should do the same against hunger”

Text next to the towers: 2863 deaths
Text next to the boy: “630 million indigents in the world”
“The world united against the terrorism should do the same against poverty”

In France, The Nicolas Hulot Foundation, an environmentalist group, created an international advertising campaign quite similar to the WWF one: “For nature, everyday is 9/11″. Although, here the message is a little more subtle, and probably less shocking as it uses trees instead of the actual towers… (see below)

Some other ads have explored the 9/11 imagery for more commercial purposes such as this one from Cobis, an independent, Brussels based IT company providing IT and network infrastructure and … internet security solutions. (see below)