Domino effect: stupid nonprofit ad

Well, it’s not as bad as their 9/11 vs. tsunami fiasco, but this World Wildlife Foundation ad achieves a noteworthy level of stupidity:

(Or watch ithere.)

The video was produced by a London ad agency, and that explains a lot: We see the danger of abstraction that ad agencies seem unable to keep out of nonprofit marketing. This video’s task is a tough one: It seeks to motivate people to “get involved” in various campaigns, apparently by writing letters. That lack of specificity certainly makes it hard to craft a compelling call to action.

But reducing action to visual symbolism doesn’t get people closer to action. It pushes them farther away.

When you write a letter, it’s an act of communication. It goes somewhere and is read by somebody, who, we hope, takes a proper action as a result.

Your letter is not a big colorful domino that starts knocks over other colorful dominos, that begin knocking over bulldozers, slitting open fish nets, and rescuing a polar bear trapped on an ice floe.

The ad may be cool to look at, but reality — boring old literal reality of people making the world a better place in specific ways — is far more compelling. And far more likely to motivate people to action.

If you need to make a video that works to stir real people to real action, find someone who isn’t bored with reality.

Thanks to Osocio for the tip.