Comments on: The Charity Ad They Don’t Want You To See, Which Means You Probably Should

By: cearta.ie » Blog Archive » Trócaire revise ads in face of BCI ban

cearta.ie » Blog Archive » Trócaire revise ads in face of BCI ban — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 17:35:15 +0000

[...] Update (11 March 2007): The debate rumbles along. Have a look, for example, at the discussions on boards.ie and indymedia ireland, to say nothing of the expanding outrage in the blogoshpere (eg Daniel K Sullivan | Politics in Ireland | Political Quote | Red Cardinal) as well as ciNews, picked up by the Holy Spirit Parish in Greenhills, Dublin. There has also been quite a bit of newspaper commentary: Unattributed in the online version of the Irish Times: Trócaire agrees to revise Lenten advert Patsy McGarry in the Irish Times: Trócaire’s young girl without a chance lives far closer to home Breda O’Brien in the Irish Times: Not so fragile that ads need to be banned Frank Khan in the Irish Independent: Aid group campaign goes on as disputed ad revised Unattributed in the online version of the Irish Independent: Trocaire should have freedom of expression, even if they’re wrong Emer O’Kelly in the Sunday Independent: Trendy Trocaire can’t be put above the rules Ann Marie Hourihane in the Sunday Tribune: Trócaire turns being female into a ticking time bomb [...]

By: Cormac

Cormac — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 17:27:13 +0000

Fucking ridiclious ad. Ahh, it makes me sick to listen to this shit.
Disguisting to swoop to this level.

By: fmk

fmk — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:09:12 +0000

And now it would appear that Trocaire have agreed with the BCI to issue a less polital edit of the ad. Jesus, but they really do seem like a cynical and manipulative bunch of creeps. As well as being hyopcrites.

By: Kevin Jardine

Kevin Jardine — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:53:48 +0000

Ah my apology, I misunderstood.

Trocaire put the video up on YouTube even before it was linked from its own site so far as I know, and YouTube has a good set of tell-your-friends tools.

But as you mention, they’ve also made it available for download here:

http://www.lent.ie/News/trocaire-lent-tv-and-radio.php

and have an e-card to promote the petition here:

http://apps.trocaire.org/justworld/mod/trocaire/ecard.php

By: fmk

fmk — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:48:23 +0000

By viral issues I mean made easy for others to send / seed around the internet. And it appears I was in error and Trocaire have got with the programme – http://www.lent.ie/

By: Kevin Jardine

Kevin Jardine — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 15:22:16 +0000

Hi fmk,

Not sure what you mean by considering “viral issues” when releasing the ad.

Do you mean that the ad should have been designed to appeal to 14-year-old male Internet d00ds?

Given the topic, that would be a trifle odd, don’t you think?

By: fmk

fmk — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:40:34 +0000

Actually I think it’s doing as well as Trocaire hoped for. When they added the sting at the end, pointing you at a website to sign a petition, they knew the ad would be judged political by the BCI. They had the Barnardos case as a recent memory and plenty pf past precident. And, of course, RTE is not under the control of the BCI, so the ad is still getting exposure on the main medium it was built for, regardless of the BCI.

What Trociare missed is that they don’t appear to have considered viral issues when releasing the ad. Organisations like Amnesty take it as granted that an ad has to have viral properties when commencing a new campaign. Trocaire – and the other Irish charities – need to wise up to the new realities.

The question that needs to be asked by people who seem to be offended by the BCI’s stance on this issue is this: should commerical radio and TV statiosn be allowed air political advertisements? Because that the is the issue at stake here.

By: Dave Davis

Dave Davis — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:23:41 +0000

I was listening on the radio the other morning when I got back to Ireland and hadn’t got a clue what this was all about. There was uproar.

I saw it over on Damiens blog.

This is a SUPER example of the democracy of the online community as whole.

Back in the day, when you heard something was banned and you didn’t see it, tough. Now it’s gone viral and I’m sure Trocaire are delighted. The campaign is probably doing much better then they could have hoped for.

By: johnmryan

johnmryan — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 13:42:04 +0000

Don’t think it’s banned on RTE television yet..

By: Niall

Niall — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:44:58 +0000

Has it only been banned recently? I’m fairly certain that I’ve seen this ad on TV.