Do you have to shock people to get them to react?
| 14:30 UK time, Thursday, 7 October 2010
Where do you like it? - cheeky question or distasteful joke?
The words of in the film Seven. And two awareness campaigns in recent days - one based around breast cancer, and one about the 10:10 climate change effort - have certainly highlighted that argument.
The 10:10 campaign is particularly graphic, featuring as it does exploding children, actresses and footballers. It was designed to have a comic, Monty Python style effect - it was written by Richard Curtis, of Blackadder and Four Weddings And A Funeral fame - but to have a serious point, as 10:10's founder Fanny Armstrong explained:
"Doing nothing about climate change is still a fairly common affliction, even in this day and age. What to do with those people, who are together threatening everybody's existence on this planet? Clearly we don't really think they should be blown up, that's just a joke for the mini-movie, but maybe a little amputating would be a good place to start?"
But the graphic gore had many people questioning it. After only a day online, it was pulled by its makers - although they did say they would leave it on YouTube.
The film stars Gillian Anderson and David Ginola. Anderson was in Straightheads with Danny Dyer, while Ginola was once part of the Aston Villa front line, so both know what it's like to be part of a bloody mess.
But the reaction to the film - particularly from of the 10:10 group - seemed to genuinely take their campaign aback.
Meanwhile women around the world have been changing their Facebook status to "I like it on...", with a range of follow-ups - "the floor", "the bed", "the bannister on the second step". What they are actually talking about is their handbag - but the casual reader is meant, of course, to think of sex.
The people behind the campaign want to raise awareness of breast cancer in a light-hearted way. It has certainly taken off - many thousands of women have changed their statuses, and triggered a wave of articles explaining the mystery to puzzled men.
But they too have come in for criticism - for trivialising a serious and deadly disease.
As says:
When did breast cancer become prurient? When did it turn into merely breast awareness? And why are so many people willing -- eager even -- to cheapen a serious disease that so many others have made serious efforts to defeat?
So do campaigns like this hit the mark? Does the publicity around them work, even if it is negative? Have you been changing your Facebook status? Have you seen the 10:10 film? Is any publicity good publicity?
