Camp Okutta
I was grabbing a Starbucks between meetings the other day near my office in the fashion district in Toronto (King and Spadina) and I saw a little advertisement for a special camp called Camp Okutta where kids could learn how to throw grenades among other activities. I was outraged for a few seconds, but then thought that it was probably a joke or trying to make some sort of point.
That night, a friend sent me a link to the camp – and I saw the answer – someone was trying to make a point. It was War Child Canada, bringing visibility to the fact that there are 250,000 child soldiers in the world today. They thought that using pale suburban-looking campers holding guns and running through fields of grenades would have a stronger impact than showing the real child soldiers.
The ever-earnest CBC reported Hoax Camp Outrages Torontonians which revolved around the fact that some Toronto residents had their feathers ruffled by the same advertisements that I saw and started ripping them down. Late in the article they quote James Topham, War Child’s Marketing Director:
"The message of the advertising is that we would never stand for it over here, so we should not stand for it over there either," he said.
Topham said that he was a little surprised to hear that people were tearing down the posters, but said that it proved their message hit home.
"If people were ripping them down, it shows that such a camp would be outrageous in Canada," he said. "And yet these camps exist all over the world."
Thanks Topham et al.
I think that’s a great marketing campaign. That’s the whole point of marketing…especially when it hits home with a deep-emotion reaction. I could understand people ripping down the posters if they were insulting to someone and served no point, but these posters are getting a real message across for help. They should be left up for all to see.
Agreed – it also annoyed me that the CBC focused on the insulting instead of the larger message – the fact that people WERE insulted by the campaign means the campaign was a success. Isn’t the media supposed to compel people to think?