From
here:
UNICEF PSA shows bombing of Smurfs' village
A shocking, adults-only public service ad for the United Nations Children's Fund to be broadcast across Belgium this week shows warplanes destroying the Smurfs' village.
Approved by the family of the Smurfs' late creator, "Peyo," the 25-second advertisement depicting the bombing was previewed last week on Belgium's main evening TV news.
UNICEF and IMPS, the family company which controls rights to the blue-skinned characters, have stipulated that the PSA is not to be broadcast before 9 p.m.
Small children who saw the message by accident last week cried in terror. Reactions from adults who viewed it ranged from approval to shock.
The ad is intended to spearhead a fundraising campaign by UNICEF's Belgian division to raise the equivalent of about $120,000 U.S. to rehabilitate ex-child soldiers in Burundi.
The cartoon begins with a pastoral scene: the Smurfs dance around a campfire hand in hand, singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds fly past and rabbits scamper around the Smurf's village of mushroom-shaped houses -- until whistling bombs fall from the sky without warning.
The Smurfs scatter and try to run from the bombs, before blast waves and explosions forced them down.
In the final scene, a scorched, torn Baby Smurf cries, surrounded by fallen Smurfs. "Don't let war affect the lives of children," the final frame of the message reads.
Given the graphic nature of this "PSA", I wonder if
UNICEF bothered to produce accompanying cartoons featuring "Osama bin Azrael" dragging Smurfette into a rape room, or "Gargamel" Hussein putting Papa Smurf feet-first into a chipper shredder, or baby smurf donning a suicide bomb vest? Or even Happy Smurf crashing an airliner into a skyscraper. After all, what's good for the goose should certainly be good for the gander.
|