Amnesty International is a non-governmental organization that focuses on human rights around the world. A Nobel peace prize winning group, their objective is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.” The six key areas they deal with are The rights of Women, children, minorities and indigenous peoples,Ending torture,Abolition of the death penalty,Rights of refugees,Rights of prisoners of conscience,And the Protection of human dignity.regarding bringing attention to human rights violations, publicizing their concerns via advertisements is one many things their organization does.
In may of 2006, Amnesty International began an ad campaign in Switzerland to bring attention to human rights violations is countries around the world. The objective was to put the issues right in front of the faces of passers by. The campaign was wildly successful, as it brought publicity around the world to the issues at hand. The slogan being “It’s not happening here, but its happening now.” Later, Amnesty created a television ad based on the same idea of bringing attention to issues in up close, in your face way that breaks through the everyday bubble we live in.
Compared to the billboard ad campaign, the television commercial has a far more sarcastic tone. It is meant to simulate a person flicking through the channels. But rather than the hosts of each show talk about how many points something is worth on the game show, the local weather, cooking tips, or motivating you to burn those extra calories, they unexpectedly site facts regarding slavery, child soldiers, civil war, and torture, all with a smile on their faces.As I watch the video, I cant help but feel uncomfortable, and even slightly ashamed while watching; and that’s exactly what its meant to do. The commercial simply relies on shock value. Since the sets are built as if they were an actual game show or cooking set, or weather studio, and the hosts aren’t speaking any differently if they were on an actual show, it makes the watcher think that they were about to some standard television programing. But when the participants speak about slavery for example, its meant to surprise and shock you. If a nationally famous cooking show host speaks about how Chinese authorities shove bamboo sticks under peoples fingernails as a form of torture, while his assistants cut raw chicken, you cant help but squirm. It makes you realize how silly and vapid standard television programing is, when the hosts themselves are telling you that there are people getting their fingernails ripped out right now.
