One of the things I really can't stand is those commercials with the pictures of sad children where the narrator talks about how this child is going to die of starvation, and you can feed them for only 50 cents per day. If they can really feed the children for just 50 cents per day and this child is really dying, why are they just standing there and filming their misery?! Why can't the cameraman reach into his or her own pocket and get out that just 50 cents? Or go buy them some food. But no, according to the commercial this child will die unless you send the organization your money. It's like Smokey the Bear saying "Only you can prevent forest fires" only it's ridiculous people saying "Only you can save this child from starvation, not me, the person getting paid a ton of money to make this commercial, only you." What kind of hoorible people must they find to make these commercials?! I can imagine the job description: must be able to work a camera, must be able to tug at people's heartstrings, must be willing to watch a child die of starvation and not do a thing to prevent it.
That's just something that annoys me, that they act like these children are definitely going to starve to death because nobody will help them. And yet they're there filming the kids and they would have to be completely heartless not to at least share their lunch with the kids.
I think you're looking for easy solutions to a complex problem. The children in those commercials are just a hand full out of thousands. One camera man or one media group can't "save" all the children.
ReplyDeleteBut if people are really interesting in helping impoverished communities they should look into organizations like water.org - they help build wells in communities and then teach the people how to use it etc.
Anything else is just a band-aid solution. The key is to teach the communities to look after themselves and each other.
I think I could have worded this post better. I just meant that it really bugs me when they show a child and then tell us that child is going to die of starvation if we don't help them. There is one particular commercial that does this. They only show one child, instead of the others that show many children and say that hundreds of children are starving just like Julian or whoever. I just think that the commercial that I'm thinking of is poorly worded; they make it sound like this one kid that they show is going to starve to death when you can feed him for only 50 cents a day, and it's just like, then why don't you help him instead of shoving a camera in his face and talking about how he's about to die?!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of those commercials, either. The fact is, those organizations end up keeping some of that money to make more commercials, and not all of it goes to kids in need. There are definitely better ways to help out, and those commercials are best at making you feel guilty. You know the guy talking in those ads took home a wad of cash to film it.
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