Link Lust: Linking like it's 1999

This truly terrifying ad for the NSPCC with the line "Don't lose control" found via AdFreak "Uk Child abuse ads don't skip on gore". Don't know when (or even if but we assume) these ran. AdFreak found them via Mark's Arthole on flickr. I don't know about you but this image makes me cringe and want to hug puppies, look at rainbows and lock out the bad bad world. Go away!


Ralph have done another TV show tailored viral, this time it's for a show called Breaking Bad where a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher unexpectedly adopts a criminal new lifestyle when he finds out that he has cancer - he opens a Meth lab in a a trailer. In the viral, Walter White - our meek high school chemistry teacher - dishes out advice that I should get off the computer and live life now. I think I will. Sounds like it'll be a good show too - course Walter's advice to stop watching too much TV becomes rather ironic when it is for a TV show.
BREAKING BAD is created by highly acclaimed writer, producer and director Vince Gilligan (“The X-Files”), executive produced by Oscar® winner Mark Johnson (The Chronicles of Narnia, The Notebook, Donnie Brasco), with the pilot episode photographed by two-time Oscar-winning cinematographer John Toll (Braveheart, Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai).

Today's really difficult timewaster: Labyrinth spin the black circle Flash game... If you get past level eleven let me know. I suspect it's impossible.
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alex's picture

Re: NSPCC - very scary ads. But they aren't on the NSPCC website yet (last campaign featured was from last year). Does Saatchi still have the account?

Dabitch's picture

I haven't heard any news saying that they lost it - and the fact that the ads are missing might just be the usual website is never updated thing .... or these ads are someone else's spec work. I mean, is bludgeoning your own children a big problem in the UK? NSPCC ads are usually sad, and call to action this one is just scary as hell.

alex's picture

I haven't bludgeoned a child in, ooh, I don't know how long. But I do feel the ad is a little on the gory side for the NSPCC, They've usually relied on a more subtle approach. I dunno though, I'll keep digging.

Dabitch's picture

Oh but lookie, our suspicions seem to have been proved correct - this is now posted on AdFreak:

Please note that this is not an official NSPCC advert. We will be contacting the owner of this blog to correct this inaccuarcy. Thank you.
Emily Knee, NSPCC Brand Communications.
alex's picture

We know, you know. :)

purplesimon's picture

Whichever ad the NSPCC choose to broadcast, I believe they don't work. Abuse stats aren't dropping, because, sadly, it's usually family members doing the abusing. That's my opinion, flame me for it if you really have to.

However, these ads *may* have made a difference, shocked people out of their daily routines and made them consider. Appealing to my sympathetic side doesn't work, especially if I don't see any positives coming out of my donations.

Again, that's my opinion. I'm happy if yours differs.

alex's picture

Obviously there's a bigger debate here about whether shock ads work or not. I often think ads like that are more about 'look at us' (the client) or 'look at us' (the agency) than 'look at yourself' (the audience).
But then... anyone who's ever been up all night on their own with a crying child knows how thin the wall is between self-restraint and blind rage. Perhaps an ad like that will stop them crossing the line. But surely serial child abusers won't be swayed by an ad if they can't be stopped by the visible, painful results of their own actions.

tod.brody's picture

I don't think those who are given to abusing children or beating their spouse are swayed by ads, shock or not. The demons sadly possessing these people can vanquish years and years of psychiatry, so I don't see that casual viewing of ads like these are going to help.
I'm sure that abusers see these things, and feel like shit, but when whatever triggers them to explode goes off, these ads are the last thing they're going to consider.

Having two beautiful children of my own, I can't imagine what tragic events occurred in these people's lives to make them strike out at their own children. I'd jump out the window before I hurt one of mine. And I agree with Alex, anyone who's ever been up all night on their own with a crying child does indeed know how thin the wall is between self-restraint and blind rage. Fortunately most of us are able to stay on the right side of the wall.

adlib's picture

The question is, will the NSPCC "sue" the fake ads creators like VW did with Lee & Dan's suicide bomber?

purplesimon's picture

If they did it might just be the best PR the NSPCC has ever done.