eyes and imagine that you’re watching TV
and the ad break comes on you’re looking
at a small child with dark skin the eyes
are empty and the lips are unsmiling the
child is barely clothed and you see skin
stretched over protruding bones the
surroundings are destitute an educated
european voice tells you the name of the
child it tells you that this child is in
desperate need and it tells you that
with just five euros a month you could
open your eyes please and raise your
hand if you’ve seen an ad like this
before
pretty much everyone so you know that
it’s made by organizations raising money
for people in the global south so that
countries in Central and South America
Africa Asia and the Middle East that’s
the global South and we talk a lot about
whether these organizations are spending
that money in an honest and responsible
way and that’s great because they
represent a huge potential for change
and we shouldn’t let that go to waste
but part of that potential is their
ability to shape your understanding of
the world they permeate your lives by
advertisements on TV in social media and
in magazines and have become one of the
main sources of information that we have
on what is happening in the global south
so I’m here to talk to you today about a
different type of responsibility a
different type of honesty
I’m here to tell you why throwing money
at a starving child won’t fix it the
type of ad that I described to you has
been labeled by critics as a starving
baby appeal and it’s based on the advice
of a group of advertising specialists
and psychologists the idea is this
individual victims who are helpless and
completely pitiful are the most
effective some terrible images will get
your attention then they make you feel
sad and guilty and you donate money too
many details might overwhelm you so it’s
best to keep things simple poverty is
terrible but development is easy that’s
what the organizations behind these ads
are thinking but what are you thinking
my thesis research found that there’s a
pretty big difference and I’d like to
illustrate that for you today by sharing
with you some of the comments made by my
participants after I showed them a
starving baby appeal you see so many
videos like that there in the end you
don’t pay any attention you’re shown a
terrible situation and it does shock you
at first but after a while you’ve seen
it all before and these images lose
their effect on you you have kind of an
impression that there is nothing
happening in that country except for
poor kids dying because you’re shown
various similar images again and again
over many years you start to believe
that there is nothing in the global
south apart from absolute poverty and
that no progress is being made and that
is a very negative stereotype we do feel
bad about it
but nobody actually realizes it when
they see the video what you’re shown is
so different to your day-to-day life
that it’s incredibly difficult to grasp
the reality of the situation he seemed
to have nothing in common with the
starving child and its family and
because of that you can sympathize
you can feel pity but you cannot
empathize and empathy has been shown to
be much more effective in getting people
to act but empathy requires common
ground and this ad draws a clear line
between you the donor and them the poor
to be pitied and helped if I were
watching television I would switch
channels I think because it looks very
depressing and deliberately made
depressing some of you noticed that you
are being guilt-tripped and we don’t
really like being manipulated like that
so we look away and never here what can
be done about the situation it’s also
obviously their faults to a certain
degree that they are still in poverty
they are not aided by how they are
treated most of the time but it’s also
not true that they are trying their
hardest most of the time this comment
really shocked me the idea that
someone’s struggling to find enough food
and water isn’t trying hard enough
shocks me but it comes from naivety not
malice and I believe it comes from a
failure of these organizations to
educate the public the starving baby
appeal is all about simplicity showing
poverty but not explaining it and
research shows that when you see an
individual in poverty and you know
nothing about the Broadus it
you Asian your mind is more likely to
jump to the conclusion that it must be
their fault so that’s where simplicity
gets you negative stereotyping the ring
and victim-blaming given of course that
you’re even paying attention anymore and
isn’t it terrible that we can be so
desensitized to images of human
suffering are the human beings reduced
to a quality of life that is
unimaginable for you and I wonder if you
or your family or your friends found
yourselves in that situation would you
want your image to be broadcast to
strangers around the world to be exposed
desperate half-naked and distressed what
do you think it was worth it for the
donations that it might bring in or
would you feel dehumanized I can’t
answer that question for you but I think
it’s fair to say that these
organizations need to find new ways of
getting your attention because the
starving baby appeal is not just
damaging and ineffective it is also
misleading the starving baby appeal is
centered on money poverty means having
no money so development means giving
money and effective advertising means
getting money and because of that
message those of you who do make a
donation sit back and think that you’ve
done your bit the starving child is
saved but that’s actually not quite how
it works experts on poverty and
development are telling us that poverty
poverty is multi-dimensional there are
of course
economic factors but social and
political factors are just as important
and the three exacerbates each other a
lot of strange things happening here so
money can buy food and shelter for those
in need but that’s addressing the
symptoms of poverty if we do not address
the causes of poverty those people will
always be dependent on donations for
their food and shelter and their real
quality of life won’t have improved
achieving an effective and sustainable
development for the third world means
addressing the structures that are
preventing people from improving their
lives again there are economic factors
but even an economic factor like unfair
wages for example won’t be fixed in the
long run by sending money into those
countries and development also means
tackling social factors such as gender
inequality and lack of education and
environmental factors such as droughts
and poor soil quality all of these
things prevent people from improving
their lives and you cannot address just
one issue at a time because the success
of each factor is dependent on the other
two and all three are dependent on good
governance also environmental factors
although I’m not showing you that right
now
the starving baby appeal hides all of
this from you and in my opinion that is
dishonest and irresponsible
I want these organizations to disconnect
from the advice of advertising
specialists who were pushing for
simplicity and instead to bring their
ads in line with what experts on poverty
and development are telling us and I’d
like to show you the advertisement which
my participants unanimously decided was
the most effect
out of the four videos that I showed
[Music]
cause I didn’t tell you but you almost
made some destiny that’s going to be
very much
I’d like again to share with you some of
the comments that my participants made
after I show them this video it really
shows that things can change for bad or
good but you can help to change them for
good they don’t have to show us videos
of them dying they just had to show us
that we have it so much better that’s
the trick this ad breaks the monotony of
malnourished and sick children poverty
isn’t a fact things are changing
progress is being made and you can
contribute to that I do want to be told
the situation otherwise it’s just an
appeal to pity I don’t want to spend
this ad tells you why children in the
global south are in poverty and why they
will struggle to get out of it climate
change is causing crop failure meaning
that they don’t have enough food or
enough money for clean drinking water
and that is affecting their education
this has laid out for you very clearly
and you can no longer assume that maybe
their poverty
is their fault they’re showing that he’s
just like other kids living here but
with less means of water or food I think
that’s also quite powerful it kind of
removes the US and then parts he’s just
this video also paves the way for
bridging the gap between ourselves and
people in the global south and as I said
earlier that’s crucial for developing
empathy benefit and snows framing theory
tells us that calls to action are most
effective when they resonate with your
personal everyday experiences I doubt
that many of you see starving children
on a day to day basis but children
playing in the streets and going to
school more likely and I’m sure that
most of you have known a nine-year-old
who wanted to be rich one day maybe a
younger sibling or a child you babysat
or maybe even yourself
this ad draws us together while still
showing us our differences having enough
money to buy food and have some leftover
is a bare minimum for you but the stuff
of dreams for him and for me that’s what
makes this ad so incredible it’s
emotionally engaging without showing you
degrading images it makes you want to
act without making you feel guilty and
it highlights how different our
opportunities are while still showing us
that really we are the same these
organizations have a huge monopoly on
telling us about the global south so
let’s start holding them accountable for
the messages they’re sending us the
starving baby appeal is an irresponsible
and dishonest form of advertising that
needs to be left behind
I want these organizations to stop under
estimating you to stop giving you the
simple story because they’re worried
about overwhelming you don’t let them
make you feel guilty or make you think
that if you don’t have spare money lying
around you’re of no use
I want more organizations to make you
feel good
developments and I want them to work
overtime to undo the damage of all the
starving baby appeals that we’ve seen
already I want them to tell you what you
can do to contribute to a sustainable
and effective development for the global
south to ask you to sign petitions Lobby
your governments and get these issues on
the national agenda because only a
combination of political action and
monetary aid will bring about the
structural change needed to truly
overcome poverty in the global south
so find organizations that are honest
and responsible spenders but are also
honest with you about what poverty and
development means in the global south
and the challenge that lies ahead
because simply throwing money at a
starving child won’t fix it [Applause]