The latest completely useless Amnesty International ad (via Slovenia).

(click ad, via) Aw, cute. Your cute computer cursor hand is stopping the bad army man from shooting innocent people. But who is he? And who is he shooting? He doesn't look particularly evil; maybe he's shooting at some evil terrorists? In which case I don't want to "stop the violence at Amnesty.si." And haven't I seen this same first-idea visual before? Yes. And it is amazing how many agencies worldwide have done Amnesty ads in recent years. Either AI has a big ad budget, or ad agencies have big hearts. The third possibility is—I don't even want to think of it, it's so EVIL—that they are all scam ads done just to try to win awards. Nah.
Ad agency: Pristop, Ljubljana.

Today's mildly clever-but-pointless grab at ad awards.

(click image) For eating human flesh dumplings. The instructions read: 1. Tuck under thumb and hold tightly. 2. Write the Chinese government to help end torture. 3. Don’t let human rights violations by the Chinese government give China a bad name. 4. Take further action at amnesty.org/china. Created by creatives at Saatchi & Saatchi NY for Amnesty International. China's a frequent ad target of AI's. The url is a phony, so this is probably spec work that the agency will try to sell to AI, but will enter into awards shows either way.
Previous pointless Amnesty International ad stunts:
• Public restroom Blood Soap.
• the high-tech wife-beating bus poster.
• woman stuffed in clear suitcase in the name of human trafficking.

China favored to win gold medals in Killery and Synchronized Drowning.

(click ads for closer look)
Jeez, Amnesty International just will NOT leave poor China alone! By hosting this summer's Olympics, the People's Republic is desperately trying to do something nice for (most) all the Peoples of the world. But AI keeps bringing up those pesky "human" rights. You know what, China? As a gesture of goodwill, how 'bout you just let Amnesty march in the opening ceremonies? previous Amnesty International ads : Abu Ghraib torture porn video; beautiful Genital Mutilation print ads; graphic Female Feticide ad. (images via. these ads just won a Bronze Lion at Cannes. that'll show those Commies.)

High-tech anti-domestic violence advertising.

(click image) This is waaay more innovative than those blood soap dispenser ads. This interactive poster (which just won a Cannes Silver Lion this week) was erected at a bus stop in Hamburg (no, Berlin), Germany. An eye tracking camera was installed in the board, so that when you looked directly at the domestic violence, after a delay, the scene morphed into spousal harmony. "It happens when nobody is watching." Pretty clever and pretty useless, since this lone installation was built for Amnesty International by agency Jung von Matt primarily to win ad awards. Previously in: anti-domestic violence ads. Previously in: Amnesty International ads.

Amnesty International. Making You More Aware Of Every Atrocity In The World—One Clever, Aesthetically-Pleasing Ad At A Time.

(click ads to read copy)
LadyFlowers. It's admittedly a tough assignment: How do you illustrate the horror of female genital mutilation without showing genital mutilation? Ad agency Publicis of Stockholm, Sweden has decided to make really pretty visual metaphors—and they're apparently really proud of the ads, as they immediately pop up on their homepage.
Honestly, I can't—off the top of my head—think of a better way to visually convey genital mutilation. My problem with these ads is whether they should have any visual in them at all. I think the words "genital mutilation" are more powerful than any visual. GENITAL MUTILATION in big white letters (maybe a flowery typeface? maybe not.) on a black background would make for a more effective ad, I believe. Your mind would then create the visual. Making such warm, beautiful ads for such a cold, ugly human rights violation may be "clever" and "dramatic." But to what effect?
previous Amnesty International ads:
1. New event at the Beijing Olympics: Uphill Tank Slalom.
on Gawker: TORTURE PORN!
(images via)

Domestic violence awareness raised via blood-like soap.

(Click images) Hand soapvertising! Well, at least the blood's not coming out of the sphincter toilet paper dispenser. To promote awareness of domestic violence in Portugal (up significantly in 2008), Amnesty International apparently replaced the normal soap in some Lisbon bar bathrooms (men's, I'm assuming) with red soap that was, according to the press note from agency McCann Erickson, "identical in color and thickness to blood." What a wonderful, drunken shock that must've been! Maybe you then read the little sign (left, translated from Portuguese) and stopped shitting you pants. Maybe not! (via) previous intrusive bathroom ads: one, two, three. previous Amnesty International ads: China, China, China, Abu Ghraib torture, genital mutilation, female feticide.

FIDEL CAKE-STRO!

(click, via)
Hey-yo! Welcome to another goddamn week of goddamn-ness.
Amnesty International last year celebrated their 50th anniversary. But the real/fake tribute ads are still rolling in. Here's one via Euro RSCG, Prague. DDB Budapest did the cake thing for AI back in 2009. And Kim Jong-il also got caked-faced by the ISHR. That's OK, ironic cake for everybody!
Many more Amnesty International ads here.

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: Amnesty International makes like Goofus.

Today on Animal New York, I posted some posters by Amnesty International that feature evil despots with silly Photoshopped cross eyes. (link)

New Event at the Beijing Summer Olympic Games: The Uphill Tank Slalom.

(click ad for closer look)
Zing, Zedong! Pow Mao! Tiananmenapause(?)! (OK, I'll stop) In the lead up to the Summer Olympics, Amnesty International—through a worldwide cabal of eager ad agencies looking to add some moral luster to their portfolios—has been playfully slamming the naughty People's Republic of China with a bunch of "take that!" print ads (here's one, two more).
Amnesty of course loves this arrangement because they get free ads; the ad agencies love it cause they get to stop working on copier/toothpaste/bank advertising for a brief period and "do some good." Yay everybody!
(image via)
previously in pro bono ads:
1. Today's lesson: the "C" words.
2. Jake pus his best shit-face forward.
3. Ad Council PSA confuses wasted NYU students.
4. Here comes Hurricane Tina, Crystal Meth users!

Next stop on Amnesty International's 'Solving The World's Problems Through Advertising' Expo: female feticide in India.

(click ad to read copy and examine the fake bullet hole)
After stops in Beijing, Iraq and Africa, Amnesty's 2007 magical marketing tour visits the second most populous country on Earth. Graphic! For those of you unaware, the barbaric act of killing female fetuses to control population is still alarmingly widespread in India (maybe more Kama Sutra condom ads would help). Noteworthy that an Austrian agency (Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann) produced this ad. Same question as with the AI female genital mutilation ad: effective visual or not? Offensive? (image via)

Shepard Fairey made a really pretty butterfly to fight sexual violence.

(click image, via) It's got peace signs. So peaceful. It's initially for an Amnesty International campaign on sexual and reproductive rights in Nicaragua, but "will be appearing soon all over the world." You can make one, too! Go here. Fight the (male) power—with fluttering prettiness! Related: Here's a round-up of Amnesty domestic violence awareness ads.

Anti-domestic violence advertising goes low-tech.

(click image) As we saw with the high-tech Amnesty International bus poster in Berlin, domestic violence often goes unseen. But often not unheard! To illustrate that fact, ad agency TBWA in Lisbon, Portugal created these screaming ad strips that were inserted into apartment building openings around the city. The (translated) copy on the strips reads: "An escaping sound can be a cry for help. Domestic violence. If you hear it, report it." How invasive! What's next? Sky-writing ads that read: "Domestic violence is skyrocketing. Report it today!" (image via) Related: a roundup of recent anti-domestic violence advertising.

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: Ad Creep Update.

To raise awareness of human trafficking, Amnesty international stuffed a young woman in a clear suitcase and plopped her down on German airport carousels. (link)

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: Amnesty International France.

Hot on the runways this fall: domestic violence and police brutality. (link)

Would you write a letter to a man on Death Row?

(click ads, via) Well, if I knew it would be received by somebody like John Coffey, I might. But more likely, it would be received by somebody like Wild Bill Wharton. New Campaign is for Humanwrites.org. Ad agency: The Union, UK.
Related: Amnesty International's incorrect death penalty ad.

Greenpeace protests this Amnesty International video.

All that wasted paper, it's an eco-disaster. It's an overwrought bullshit metaphor, but a compelling, nicely-shot overwrought bullshit metaphor. Ad agency: Euro RSCG in Kuala Lumpur. Here's more of AI's overwrought bullshit metaphors.

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: Amnesty International France.

AI France uses and abuses nesting dolls to blast Russia's human rights violations. (link)

BAD WATER! BAD, BAD WATER!!

(click ads to read copy)
Today in the New York Times, Stuey "scoop" Elliott reports on the creative efforts of U.S. ad agencies to aid global water projects. So, to be timely, I'm posting these two international "bad water" ads that've been drying in my "to be posted" file.
(L)—LOOKY! It's 9/11! Once again exploited in the name of deadlier death (last time, you may remember, it was an insensitive anti-smoking ad out of Dubai). Here, it's part of a goofyfuck diorama ad for French humanitarian organization Solidarités. Puppet planes! I knew it was a conspiracy. (image via)
(R)—Unicef in Sweden goes right for the heart with the tried & true doe-eyed African youngin' (close-up face shots are popular with "cause" ads). And, while the water pistol isn't exactly a sparkling fresh metaphor, at least the Swedes didn't need a fucking math equation to get the point across. (image via)
related: Amnesty International takes on Genital Mutilation and China.

Gaddafi in Advertising.

(click ads)
• Top: Selling life insurance in Australia.
• Middle: Attacked by Twitter birds via a French TV station.
• Bottom Left: Speechless vs. Amnesty International
(translation: Your signatures have power).
• Bottom Right: Afraid of the mouse of the International Society for Human Rights.

A tribute to Kim Jong-il (six attack ads).

(click ads)
Now that the Dear Leader has rocketed off this mortal coil due to "mental and physical exhaustion", according to a blubbering North Korean broadcaster, we can look back with snickers at the anti-KJi ads produced by various human rights organizations.
Top Left: Kim gets his paper face rearranged by French freedom of the press advocates Reporters Without Borders.
Top Right: A very fake looking KJi is sent scurrying up the drapes by the mouse of Germany's International Society for Human Rights (ISHR). That looks like a boy's body with the Dear Leader's big head.
Middle Left: Kim looks quite non-plussed to be smashed in the face with (Uranium yellow) cake by the ISHR.
Middle Right: Jong gets the Photoshopped kiss of death from South Korean leader Lee Myung-bak via Benetton's latest round of rabble-rousing ads.
Lower Left: Amnesty International in Spain plants a bug-size logo on the ruthless dictator's schnoz, and digitally crosses his eyes. That showed him.
Lower Right: Not an ad, but the classic Economist cover from 2006.
(all ads/images previously posted on copyranter)