Per someone's request: *** http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...urf08.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/08/ixhome.html Unicef bombs the Smurfs in fund-raising campaign for ex-child soldiers By David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 08/10/2005) The people of Belgium have been left reeling by the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes. The short but chilling film is the work of Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, and is to be broadcast on national television next week as a campaign advertisement. The Unicef advert, which shows the Smurfs' village being bombed The animation was approved by the family of the Smurfs' late creator, "Peyo". Belgian television viewers were given a preview of the 25-second film earlier this week, when it was shown on the main evening news. The reactions ranged from approval to shock and, in the case of small children who saw the episode by accident, wailing terror. Unicef and the family company, IMPS, which controls all rights to the Smurfs, have stipulated that it is not to be broadcast before the 9pm watershed. The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom- shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky. Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs. The final frame bears the message: "Don't let war affect the lives of children." It is intended as the keystone of a fund-raising drive by Unicef's Belgian arm, to raise £70,000 for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi. Philippe Henon, a spokesman for Unicef Belgium, said his agency had set out to shock, after concluding that traditional images of suffering in Third World war zones had lost their power to move television viewers. "It's controversial," he said. "We have never done something like this before but we've learned over the years that the reaction to the more normal type of campaign is very limited." Belgium prides itself on being the home of some of the world's most famous cartoon characters - from Tintin to Lucky Luke and the Smurfs, known to the Dutch- speaking half of the country as "Smurfen" and as "Schtroumpfs" to Belgium's French speakers. The advertising agency behind the campaign, Publicis, decided the best way to convey the impact of war on children was to tap into the earliest, happiest memories of Belgian television viewers. They chose the Smurfs, who first appeared in a Belgian comic in 1958. Julie Lamoureux, account director at Publicis for the campaign, said the agency's original plans were toned down. "We wanted something that was real war - Smurfs losing arms, or a Smurf losing a head -but they said no." The film has won tentative approval from the official Smurf fan club. A spokesman said: "I think it will wake up some people. It is so un-Smurf-like, it might get people to think." Hendrik Coysman, managing director of IMPS, said: "That crying baby really goes to your bones." david.rennie@telegraph.co.uk
If I get hit by a bus today, I feel that my life has been complete since I was able to read a thread here about smurfs.
My wife swears there was a gang in Houston called the Smurfs in the '80s. Does she know what she is talking about?
Yes and no. I was in elementary school in the 80's and the teachers in my public school would, once every year, pass out (on slips of paper) little warnings to the children to be careful of gang activity because a gang called the Smurfs were out seeking revenge for some slight done to them. I realized later it was some (sick) joke, but at the time it scared the **** out of me. I really don't know what they were thinking doing that. This was Sammons Elementary, btw.
Huh. I think she told be she saw Smurfs graffiti (doubt it). But she did say there were warnings at her school (she was at one of those "Cy" districts). I guess it scared her too.
there was an urban legend about the smurf gang...made kids afraid to go to the bathroom alone. can't remember what that was about, and i haven't thought about it before today since elementary school.
Cartoon Empathy By JOEL LOVELL For anyone who pays even the slightest attention to cartoons, the scene is familiar: birds flying, bunnies hopping, floppy-hatted Smurfs singing and dancing around a campfire. Then without warning a group of warplanes arrives and starts carpet-bombing. As the Smurfs scatter, their mushroom village goes up in flames. After the last bomb falls, amid the burning rubble and surrounded by dead Smurfs, Baby Smurf sits alone, wailing. The scene comes from a 30-second TV commercial that began being shown on Belgian national television this fall, as part of Unicef's campaign to raise money to help rehabilitate child soldiers in Sudan, Burundi and Congo. The decision to use cartoon characters in the ad, rather than show images of actual children, was calculated not to lessen the horror but to amplify it. "We've found that people have gotten used to seeing traditional images of children in despair, especially from African countries," says Philippe Henon, a spokesman for Unicef Belgium. "Those images are no longer surprising, and most people certainly don't see them as a call to action." Unicef's goal was to convey to adults the horror of war by drawing on their childhood memories, and Smurfs, Henon says, "were the image most Belgians ages 30 to 45 connect to the idea of a happy childhood." The spot has generated a considerable amount of controversy. "People have been shocked," says Henon, who emphasizes that the ad is intended for an adult audience and is shown only after 9 p.m. "But we've received a lot of positive reactions. And this has also been apparent in the donations." Adeyinka Akinsulure-Smith, a psychologist at the Bellevue/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture, agrees that it makes sense to reframe the constant stream of images of suffering from Africa: "The more horrible the thing you're trying to raise awareness for, the harder it is for people to wrap their minds around it. We run up against that in America all the time. Maybe if we showed this stuff happening to Charlie Brown and Lucy and the gang, we'd break through." # Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
Anyone else think that, while I get the message, it may be funny to see the Smurfs get axed? Gargamel must be wringing his hands in evil joy as we type! Can someone do a short about Jar Jar next?
