Published:1 December 2013
Country: Worldwide
How many times have you seen the face of an African child on fundraising adverts calling for your donations? In the video ‘Let’s save Africa’ an African child appears, however, it is nothing like you have seen before. It is a parody of classic stereotypes used on Charity Appeals.
This video is part of a campaign that the Norwegian Students and Academics International Assistance Fund, SAIH, has launched to criticise the use of stereotypes on fundraising and to promote a change in the way these campaigns are made.
“Stereotypical imagery is hurting both the cause and the people being portrayed. It’s taking away people’s dignity and agency, while creating apathy instead of action amongst people in the rest of the world”, explains SAIH.
They ask in their website “Do you remember the first time you heard about people starving? That initial feeling of shock, and then after having seen the same pictures on TV over and over again, it turned into little drops of apathy”.
With this campaign they aim to change the way fundraising campaigns are communicating issues of poverty and development, creating engagement built on knowledge, not stereotypes.
SAI has reated the Golden Radiator Awards and the Rusty Radiator Award that awards creative fundraising campaigns and stereotypical campaigns. An international jury nominated eight videos, and you get to decide the winners by voting in their website. The winners for the best and worst campaigns will be announced 10th of December.