BlogHer - Best PSA Placement Ever: Save Darfur and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - Comments

Thanks for posting, Jeneane

Marianne Richmond — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 00:18:29 -0600

I think the timing and the programming were completely appropriate....this genocide continues without even much of a nod from most people or from our government. It is shameful; and what is a better time than Thanksgiving to remind us of it and give us the "opportunity" to try and explain it to our families?

I didn't really appreciate having to explain "inappropriate sexual contact" and other concepts from Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky's appearances on the news night after night to my kids when they were younger, speaking of being "ambushed".....

Marianne Richmond
resonancepartnership

Again, Thank You for posting this

debra roby — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 16:37:02 -0600

I was out walking the dogs (a holiday tradition) and didn't watch the parade. When I read your post, I had to go see the video of the PSA. What could people reading from a script say that would be so disturbing it could so upset young children and their parents?

After watching the video, I still don't know.

I doubt that the 4 year old understands the word "rape" to be disturbed. Nor the 6 year old. And if they know the words, then they are old enough to ask questions of their parents and get honest answers. Old enough for parents to have a conversation with them. Tell them that life around the world isn't like the life they have.

After all, if Thanksgiving is about being thankful for the things you have, should a discussion of those things be part of it? Things like food, freedom, safety, health? Even for a 4 year old these concepts hold. Do we want children to believe that what they should be thankful for is a new Nintendo from Santa in a month?

If parents bury their heads in the sand, and encourage their children not to look (because it is not a pretty picture), when do the children learn to care?? And where do they learn??

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

Hi Jeneane,Thanks so much

mcmilker — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 16:32:25 -0600

Hi Jeneane,

Thanks so much for responding. You do make some valid points. I got on a bit of a roll there...I should have said, "words" not images. I'm a Marketing professional and a Mom, so my take on it and yours, probably in the end, are quite similar.

I am all for communicating this horrible situation to comfortably situated Americans and for us, as country to get off the couch and do something about it. My concern is that, while my 4-year-old actually IS old enough to ask, "Mommy, what's rape?"; he is not old enough to be given an answer with which I am comfortable. I also am not thrilled to think that he would to preschool the next day and attempt to use the word in a sentence, which he would.

My only point is that, parents should be the ones to decide to what their children are exposed...this is a bit of an old argument that many Moms before me have made about video games marketed to kids with what they consider inappropriate images etc. So, if a parade is marketed to kids, a parent should be able to expect programming including PSA's that are targeted to or at least appropriate for children of all ages.

Hmmm...I'm beginning to sound like a super conservative, retro parent...oh dear....I hope this post is more gentle and less strident than I think it is. :-(

MC Milker

THANK YOU for posting this.

Marilyn — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 10:08:47 -0600

THANK YOU for posting this. I didn't see the parade yesterday, so I missed the PSA...but I've just viewed the video at Save Darfur. As someone who's doing her tiny part to try to keep this situation in people's minds, thank you for your belief that the truth matters.

Marilyn
Bloggers for Darfur

(I don't know how to embed links here...the URL is http://bloggersfordarfur.blogspot.com)

I think the parade was the point

Jeneane Sessum — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 09:19:12 -0600

Chances are a four year old wouldn't understand or ask much about what was being said. If children are old enough to ask, we better be able to answer. And if not, we better be able to find the answers.

That's what I challenged myself with sitting there with my daughter. Thought process: holy shit. ugh. okay. well. here I go...

I think the parade was the point. Opulent commerce and celebration in the financial hub of the U.S. on a day of thanks. "Hello, but" to me was the perfect positioning for that message--both as a communications professional and as a mother.

By the way, there were NO IMAGES. Go watch the video. It was simply human beings reading some powerful words from those in darfur. Easy to explain away if a parent chooses to. A challenge to parents who decide to tell the truth.

Jeneane Sessum
Contributing Editor

For more writing from Jeneane, see Allied and Blog Sisters

Appropriate audience

mcmilker — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 08:35:32 -0600

I have to agree with mercat â€“ looking at the target audience for the parade and the target market for the message, I think it was misplaced. This is not an adult show. Over 50MM people watch that parade, the vast majority families with children. Says Robin Hall, producer/director of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: "The Parade has always been about childrenâ€¦â€

My 4-year-old and I watched that parade. We watch very little TV and that was a special occasion. I resent him being exposed to that. At 4 â€“ I donâ€™t want him exposed to the cruelties of the world yet. I understand the sponsorâ€™s intention and agree that placement on the news would not get the reaction requiredâ€¦however; it COULD get the audience who could make an impact without alienating parents. How about placement on an â€œadult orientedâ€ show with an adult audience. It seems the same jarring impact could be attained by placing that PSA in a sitcom AND not expose very young children to inappropriate images.

That said, we all come from different places. As the parent of a young child, I am perhaps more sensitive to these issues. Maybe Iâ€™ll change my mind when my child is older.

MC Milker

I remember discussing things

cooper — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 01:58:44 -0600

I remember discussing things like the Holocaust with my family at a very young age, but then again we discussed a lot of things and rarely watched television.

The media could be a lot more instigative in cases of the travesties occurring all over the world but for sponsors and people who don't want to see such things and think for some reason their children, just by the happenstance of being born in this country, shouldn't have to hear of it either.

Oh yeah the some people in Africa are getting raped, and murdered for no fault of their own, children in Darfur are starving and their mothers are raped in front of them. Women in the Congo have fistulas running from their rectums to their vaginas because rape is a constant act of war, but letâ€™s turn our heads and protect our children - as if they arenâ€™t overprotected enough already - instead of discussing it with them and by discussing it with them letting them know it is wrong and immoral and that we do not turn a blind eye to the suffering of others because it bothers us and we shouldnâ€™t see such know of such things.

Funny, my 9-year-old

Jeneane Sessum — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 22:33:12 -0600

Funny, my 9-year-old daughter was next to me watching too. Right there. Her initial reaction was to smile, not knowing what was going on. She said, "They're reading scripts...? Why?" I said, "They're talking about something terrible where people are being killed in Africa." Yes it was jarring. And a good opportunity for a lesson in reality. Especially at a time of thanks. It's more than "tragedy," it's genocide.

Imagine a PSA like this playing in America during Hitler's Holocaust and people saying, "Hey my kids were sitting there, and we were enjoying a parade. They didn't have a right to talk about that."

PLEASE.

Jeneane Sessum
Contributing Editor

For more writing from Jeneane, see Allied and Blog Sisters

Are you kidding me?

mercat — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 19:20:14 -0600

While you're praising the communications genius of the PSA sponsors, consider this scenario: 6-year-old and 9-year-old girls happily watching the parade and then facing jarring testimonials from witnesses to child rape. Several testimonials, while daddy fumbles for the remote. Real nice, NBC. This isn't savvy communications--it's poor judgement all around, by the PSA sponsors, NBC and their affiliates. I'm as shocked and saddened by the tragedy in Darfur as anyone, but ambushing my two young girls (and, I'm sure, many others) with concepts they can't begin to understand and shouldn't have to understand isn't the solution. C'mon--the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? Who'd they think would be in front of the TV? Shameful....

Best PSA Placement Ever: Save Darfur and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Jeneane Sessum — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 13:17:32 -0600

Feasts, floats, sponge bob's the biggest square float ever, hannah montana, marching bands, confetti, macy's, mittens, sesame street, build-a-bear, cheers, chrysler building, big apple -- thanksgiving day images parade across the tv screen.

Commercial break: BAM!

Then: The Save Darfur PSA, Voices from Darfur, where people on the street tell the juxtaposing story in the words of sufferers in the horrific genocide in Darfur, made all the more powerful against the backdrop of the NYC celebration.

I wish I could find the specific PSA on youtube, but I haven't been able to. If anyone tivo-ed the parade and puts up the segway from parade into the Darfur spot, pls let me know if you put it on youtube.

From a communication perspective alone, this placement was right on. Communication impact is often quadrupled by placing a message where it DOESN'T fit, rather than where it does. While standard thinking might place the Darfur PSA during the news, or a political show, or where people sensitive to the issue are likely to be watching, the stronger approach is to place it where people who aren't already fine-tuned for such a message are waiting.

There is no way those stories will leave my heart today.

UPDATE: The video of the ad campaign JUST went live on the Save Darfur site.

And on YouTube.

Tags:Tags: savedarfur.org, save darfur, america thanksgiving, darfur, genocide, voices from darfur = Powered by Qumana