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“What if we cared about those in poverty as much as we cared about celebrities?”
That is the question being asked in a brilliant new Canadian social services campaign, which aims to get homeless and poor single mothers into education and career programs.
Woodgreen Community Services in Toronto enlisted the help of advertising company DDB to create the campaign, that includes posters and a genius television ad running on local stations.
Take a look:
Here’s the 50-second ad:
The women featured in the ads are all actual people Woodgreen are helping at the moment, and have all been interviewed on the site. Take a look here. In the mean time, you can see the rest of the posters:
Really makes you rethink that gossip rag purchase, huh?
Top Comments
I never buy gossip mags. I'll read them in cafes and doctor's offices but I won't boost their sales figures by buying them. They're full of lies, they denigrate and shame women and when I do read them I end up feeling a little grubby….
Look, even if this was a real magazine and there would be many people willing to buy it (as I expect there would be), the main problem I see is who or what would be advertised in it? You can hardly put a perfume advert (for overpriced smelly water) on an opposing page with a story of eviction. It would be in poor taste to advertise overseas holidays where you can spend up big in Singapore, Dubai, or Thailand staying in 5 star accommodation on the page next to a story about someone who doesn't have a 1 star roof over their head, let alone be able to afford to leave the "comfort" of their shack behind and live in another location with an empty abode idly doing nothing.
Oh there'd be a market for this magazine alright, but the $89.95 cover price per monthly issue to subsidise what advertisers normally would do (the printing, shipping and distribution costs) would not make it a viable product.
Seriously, what COULD you advert in this magazine?
Also, a big market for trashy magazine is the middle to lower class with those readers using celebrities as escapism, living vicariously through them within the confines of these magazines. When you are almost homeless yourself, what does reading about someone else's misfortune bring to your life?
Charities could use some of their funding to advertise to get people to donate to theirs, or other charities. The beauty of it is that considering that the magazine would more than likely be done by a non for profit organisation, and the ads were all done by non for profit organisations, there would have to be tax breaks somewhere for those organisations, meaning costs wouldn't be that high, especially if a publishing firm printed it for them as a donation (another tax deduction?) I would prefer to buy a magazine like that, with articles that give ideas on how to avoid poverty, live within your means. That lists services that can help if you find yourself in that circumstance, that detail what charities actually do (making more inclined to donate) than reading about the Kardashians huge butt, or stupid baby names for celebrities babies that they had in their mid 40's.
That's a great well thought out response to my comment, and I'm not dissing it in any way, but the way that this is portrayed in not of a magazine by a charity or charities, but by a magazine that would go up against Who (or People in the US), New Idea, Women's Day, That's Life, and OK (sorry, I'm not really that up-to-date with those magazines that came out after the 1990s), etc.
The Big Issue sort of fits the bill of what you are talking about but for a magazine to be sitting on the shelf next to those magazines with the suggestion that people will pick it up instead of those, that's a big ask and the advertisers wouldn't come.
-Supermarket specials.
-Awareness campaigns.
-Local council events.
-Charities.
-Television programs.
-TAFE and Universities.
-Short courses.
-Government campaigns.
All these suggestions pay for advertising their cause/message/services/events.
Is it just me or does other people think that we are missing a valuable opportunity to educate our kids at school? We have these classes called 'life skills' or something along those words but we don't get taught how to live. Knowing simple things on how to get a loan and how to pay off a loan, how to budget, things to look at when buying a car, simple saving techniques, etc... It would go a long way. I know some of you will say that its something parents should teach their children but these parents living on the poverty line currently do not have the tools to educate their children in these vital skills. With the constant changing world especially with technology advancement it is easy for young adults and alike to fall into poor money choices and start a downward spiral.