Perception Poll - The woman in the Oxfam advert

londonsurrey

wik wrote: »

I know what you mean about the ramming food thing...
I have started to mute the adverts, because between loan adverts, diet ones and compare whatever ones !! :@ adverts drive my mad...
I did hear a thing on the radio that said about people becoming dulled to the adverts, and i think its true....

I give to several charities very close to my family, and to be honest the endless adverts that make you feel that where has all the money gone in all the years since band aid gone?

WHY why why... is it still happening?

In the past I have given Christmas pressies of wells and goats... and then find am still being asked for more..

what about the people here in povety? maybe is their turn!

wik x

Actually, that is one big problem I have with giving to charities. When I was younger, you gave to a charity, and that was that.

Now, I have lifetime membership to some, and have been given presents of donations/a subscription to others, which is nice.

However, as a result of these, I now get regular repeated begging letters and some newsletters with particularly lurid and upsetting pictures.

While I appreciate that good work is done, I really don't think it's quite what I had in mind for this transaction, i.e. I give them money, expect a feel good glow, but instead get horrified on a regular basis! Lol.

coolcait

londonsurrey wrote: »

Actually, that is one big problem I have with giving to charities. When I was younger, you gave to a charity, and that was that.

Now, I have lifetime membership to some, and have been given presents of donations/a subscription to others, which is nice.

However, as a result of these, I now get regular repeated begging letters and some newsletters with particularly lurid and upsetting pictures.

While I appreciate that good work is done, I really don't think it's quite what I had in mind for this transaction, i.e. I give them money, expect a feel good glow, but instead get horrified on a regular basis! Lol.

I know what you mean.

Back in the day, I was a supporter of various charities.

Then my circumstances changed, and I had to stop the direct debits. Being me, I wrote to each of the charities, explaining that I still supported their cause 100%, but couldn't currently express that support in financial terms.

When my circumstances changed again, for the better, I contacted only one of those charities, to re-start my contribution.

It was the one charity which - when I stopped the direct debit originally - had sent me a letter which thanked me for my contributions to that point, told me the kind of difference those contributions had made to the people they worked with, and only sent me their annual report after that point.

The charities which had sent me "we know you said you can't contribute right now, but look at these horrific photos and give us a quid" letters - every month. They lost my support straight away.

Back to the poll .

The woman's voice annoys me, if I'm honest. But I would have been equally annoyed if her voice had been obviously dubbed by someone with a more 'acceptable' tone or accent.

I'm also annoyed by the thought of what else Oxfam could have spent that money on.

My logical brain thinks that they might have been trying to get a Band Aid/Comic Relief/Children in Need feeling of immediacey and action.

As for the 'force feeding' aspect. I didn't see that. I saw a cross between the usual messy 'learning to spoon feed' process, and a 'please eat this to survive' desperation.

The idea of 'feed the mother, so she can feed her children' is good. That wold be the optimum approach, IMO.

If you're dealing with serious childhood malnutrition, then you might have to bypass that, and go for spoonfuls of 'please eat this to survive'.

Plethora_2

It's not so much her accent as the general charity 'guilt trip' thing that I can't deal with. I'll donate if I agree/sympathize with the cause not cos you make me feel like sh!te.

pulliptears

This ad?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l9BAUBjWGY

TBH I tend to 'tune out' of charity adverts. I give what I can when I can to charities I choose and trying to guilt me out of my money is both irritating and ineffective.

burnoutbabe

The actual cost of taking her there (flight and accomodation) is probably tiny compared to the overall cost of the advert and the amount paid to screen the advert.

Would we prefer they paid an actor? that would be £5k or so for a voice over.

scooby088

Seen the ad what puzzles me is how much did it cost to get the woman out to africa? How much of the actual money you donate goes to the cause rather than the cost of administration, and any oxfam shop I have been into is extra oridinarily expensive, even the second hand clothes.

To get round the whole administration thing I tend to ask what my local charity is short of and get that instead rather than donate financially.

arbroath_lass

I must admit I took "proper milk" to mean breastmilk from Mum.

I've watched again and she still seems like a perfectly normal young woman to me. I can't see what is irritating about her (the advert - yes but the woman - no).

Advertising obviously brings in more money than it costs - that's why they do it!

Person_one

turtlemoose wrote: »

This advert infuriates me, due to its anti breastfeeding tone.

Apparently, that woman can't breastfeed her rather-large-for-one-month-old-and-not-particularly-starving-looking twins, so donate to oxfam and they'll provide her with, to use their words "proper milk".

How about they provide food for the mother, and practical breastfeeding support - then the mother will make "proper milk" all of her own!!!

Lots of women in sub-Saharan Africa can't breastfeed without passing on HIV.

Breastfeeding in developing countries isn't as simple as it is here.

turtlemoose

Since November 2009, the World Health Organisation's official stance is that HIV positive mothers should breastfeed.

http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/88/1/10-030110/en/index.html

Perhaps oxfam could spend the money on the "practical breastfeeding support" I mentioned earlier, this could include the necessary antiviral drugs as well as educating people.

pulliptears

Perhaps they could spend the money on encouraging contraception which I'm reasonably sure would make an enormous difference to the third world.