make art, not war
UNICEF estimated 1,106 children were killed amid the fighting in Syria in 2018 – the record number since the Syrian Civil War started in 2011 (Ruiz-Grossman 2019). These statistics count children were killed by ‘direct violence’ such as bullets, airstrikes, bombs, and land mines. Also, there were more than 250 attacks on education and health facilities. In 2014, the creative agency Don’t Panic London created a 93-second video titled Most Shocking Second A Day Video or If London were Syria on the conflict’s third anniversary to raise public awareness of the refugees’ suffering who otherwise have been overlooked (Hooton & Williams 2014) (figure 1). I find this campaign effective due to one reason: its strategy.
Figure 1: A scene cut from the video. Reproduced from: WordPress 2016
if i were her,
Firstly, storytelling succeeded in attracting attention and increasing empathy. Research has found a message to be more powerful when the recipient discerns themselves as similar to the source (Pratkanis 2007). Many viewers can relate to the little girl’s circumstance as they can recognize their similar hobbies or routines represented by her such as playing with make-up or with friends in the park, learning to play the flute, or blowing candles on her birthday cake. Moreover, this video provides a realistic close-up on how a girl’s life changed drastically due to war (figure 2,3,4,5). The story has a cyclical flow as it starts and ends with the girl making a wish on her birthday, exhibiting the contrast in not only her emotions but also in the reduction of her family members. According to Pratkanis (2007), this repetition effect is a powerful technique that further enhances the message’s salience – the impacts of war on lives. Moreover, the video also employs one of three Aristotle’s models of persuasion: Pathos which is a way to persuade the public by generating an emotional response (Nguyen 2020). In this case, the campaign plays with viewers’ emotions by depicting the child’s life-changing event before their eyes.
Figure 2,3,4,5: Reproduced from: Independent 2014
aren't we human too?
Furthermore, perspective-taking is strong. Proposed by Tajfel (1982), the theory of social identity is where we perceive ourselves belonging to an in-group based on shared features compared to out-group that consider being different from us. It can be easily forgotten during the war that Syria was a middle-income country where children enjoyed the advantages of education, healthcare, and many other basic human rights compared to, in this case, British children. Therefore, the video enables the in-group people to increase in size by demonstrating that all people are the same and the impacts of war on people are not different from one another. Lastly, the eye contacts the main character made at the end of the video seems like a direct reminder to whoever is watching that it’s time for action. As stated by Petty, Cacioppo, and Schumann (1983), eye contact is an effective strategy for communicating with the audience and promotes personal interaction, raising the possibility of information being transmitted through the central route.
Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die.” – Herbert Hoover (Goodreads n.d.)
If there was anything I would like to change in this campaign, I would demonstrate more clearly what happens to the little girl. It is quite difficult to recognize the circumstances that the girl’s facing by many people if they are not aware of the campaign in the first place. Therefore, I would recommend that this video needs to have a preface with at least once a sentence explaining what will happen next in the video so that viewers can comprehensively understand the situation and its message.
Word count: 620
REFERENCES:
Hooton, C & Williams, R 2014, ‘If London were Syria: Save the Children campaign releases unsettling video’, Independent, 4 March, viewed 1 May 2020, < https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/if-london-were-syria-save-the-children-releases-unsettling-video-9168988.html>
Nguyen, L 2020, ‘Creative Advertising: Week 6: Techniques and formats’, PowerPoint slides for GRAP2412 Creative Advertising, RMIT University, Hanoi, viewed 28 April 2020, Blackboard@RMIT.
Petty, R Cacioppo, J & Schumann, D 1983, ‘Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement’, Journal of consumer research, February, vol. 2, iss. 10, pp. 135-146.
Pratkanis, A.R 2007, ‘Social influence analysis: An index of tactics’, Psychology Press, pp. 17-82. Ruiz-Grossman, S 2019, ‘Record number of children died in Syria in 2018: UN’, Huffpost, 11 March, viewed 1 May 2020, < https://www.huffpost.com/entry/record-number-children-killed-syria-2018_n_5c86c2fae4b0ed0a00164694>
Tajfel, H 2003, ‘Social Psychology of Intergroup relations’, Annual Review of Psychology, November, vol.1, iss. 33, pp. 1-39.
IMAGE REFERENCE:
Bivins, J 2016, ‘Strategy planning model: If London were Syria campaign’, image, Wordpress, viewed 1 May 2020, < https://joscelynblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/strategic-planning-model-if-london-were-syria-campaign/>
Hooton, C & Williams, R 2014, ‘If London were Syria: Save the Children campaign releases unsettling video’, image, Independent, viewed 1 May 2020, < https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/if-london-were-syria-save-the-children-releases-unsettling-video-9168988.html>