Hello, I'm the person responsible for creating this video, and after reading these comments I thought I'd chime in and attempt to explain a few things.

So this video is an answer to the Future Lions brief:

'Advertise a product from a global brand in a way that couldn’t have been done five years ago, to an audience of your choosing.'

I'd say my piece is on brief, albeit in a roundabout way. Now I could have gone down the more obvious route, of fabricating some GPS / Twitter / augemented reality / geo-location / smart phone app to sell coffee / shoes / clothes / cat food / whatever.

Or I could I have used this opportunity to create something which will make me stand out from the crowd. Which as a student who is soon to graduate, I'd say is quite important. I presume you're mostly advertisers or in marketing. So we can all agree advertising's number one job is to get attention. Which my video has done. After just 2 days it's had hundreds more views than any other Future Lions 2011 entry that is currently on YouTube.

Some of my favourite reactions to it so far:

'Gave me Inner Mouth Vomit.'

'I really hope your company fails.'

'Does a beer company win any good will by sponsoring death?'

The ad industry is notorious for taking itself rather too seriously, being hypocritical, cynical (erm...Unilever?), yet at the same time being chock-full of sanctimonious bellends. Which is ironic when for the most part, their careers are spent propagating bullshit. I think Dave Trott said it best, talking about the 'Chip Shop awards' -

"I think the purpose of The Chip Shop Awards is to take the piss. To take the piss out of how seriously advertising takes itself. To take the piss out of advertising’s obsession with awards. To take the piss out of a little yellow wooden pencil elevated to the level of The Nobel Prize..... And, nowadays more than ever, we badly need someone to take the piss."

Dabitch - you mentioned the piece takes too long to explain the situation - 'as if we never opened a god damned newspaper in our lives.' Then go on to say ' wasting the time of the jury.' Most people aren't aware of what has being going on in Sudan. My video has brought the situation to many people's attention for the first time. So criticising my inclusion of the situation in the Sudan because it wastes the time of a jury for an advertising awards ceremony, while being self-righteous about the whole thing is perhaps slightly hypocritical.

If industry types get all sanctimonious about a satirical film about how sanctimonious industry types are - well, this demonstrates that my video has done exactly what I wanted it to do. It's a satire on the advertising industry, on self-congratulatory circle-jerk advertising awards ceremonies, and on holier-than-thou marketeers who delude themselves into thinking that their careers are dedicated to something that makes a difference to people's lives - when they aren't. It's bullshit. People who are just so incredibly inflated that if they see a video that features poor African people made by a white person that features humour, that they have this knee-jerk reaction and begin to exercise their divine right to be offended. On behalf of the people of South Sudan - like they somehow represent them.

In places I've shown the vid that aren't frequented by ridiculous advertising industry types, the film has had very positive feedback. May I direct you to;

http://www.b3ta.com/links/624132

and here -

http://nanojv.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/white-bull-lager-army-sud-soudan-...

(The latter is in French. But well worth a translate).

Someone mentioned 'It's a boring, poorly voiced classroom film.' Well yes, I suppose it is a classroom film (but I'd disagree about the boring part). I am a student after all, with limited production means at my disposal. The entire thing was cobbled together in my mates living room. I suppose it wasn't made wholly for the purposes of the Future Lions. I made it to get myself out there - like i said before if I'd have made the usual geo-location smart-phone app to promote some-boring-bloody-brand type video, it's likely that after the awards finished it would sink without a trace. I don't expect that this film will. Yes, it's unlikely to win anything, and after it fails to win anything I'm sure I'll feel terrible about wasting the judge's precious time, but in an era of advertising mediocrity and the industry in a state of quandry, with things shifting more to branded content / entertainment - I think this film is relevant and at least sets me apart from the pack. The tagline for Future Lions is 'Start out famous.' Without winning an award, I have a chance of achieving that with this film. Or perhaps notoriety, within industry circles.

The best thing for me is that people think it's real. People from the advertising industry think it's real. I'd chalk that up as a win.

I'll leave you with the reaction from my Dad to the video. He's 72 and lives in Leeds. He doesn't work in the advertising industry. Somewhat biased perhaps, but I think you could all learn something from him.

Dear Tom
I have read all the po faced comments about x millions dead in the Sudan. They must be from people who have had a cranial operation to remove their sense of humour.
Have they never heard of a film called 'Life of Brian'
You certainly are making waves....good
Luv
DAD