Another interesting video has been made to help the Syria appeal. It starts with a young girl blowing out candles (I think I counted 9) on her birthday, this is followed by clips of her doing normal every day things that a 9 year old in the UK might do: eating cake, trying on her mums lipstick, playing her recorder, playing in the park etc. Suddenly brief excerpts of the news are shown on TV and the front of newspapers and then we hear the sound of a helicopter and realise that civil war has hit Britain.
It’s a powerful and haunting video which get’s darker and darker, depicting the potentail scenes of conflict in the UK.
In a similar vein to the Norway SOS video, the film constructs the life of a distant other through the lens of someone more familiar to the UK audience. Again, by using a child that we recognise we feel more personal connection and sympathy and thus views of the film have rocketed.
The video has been produced by Save the Children to highlight the Syria crisis. It was launched in the run-up to the three-year anniversary of the conflict where 10,000 children have lost their lives and 2.3 million people have become refugees. Jack Lundie, Director of Brand and Communications at Save The Children says
“This powerful and cleverly-crafted short film engages the viewer with the idea of what daily life might be like for children here at home, if a conflict broke out in the UK. It’s easy to forget that Syria was a middle income country, where children enjoyed the benefits of education, healthcare and the other basic rights our children take for granted – not to mention Facebook accounts, video games and youth culture. We hope the video will resonate with the public, particularly those who don’t know much about the situation in Syria, and offer a new perspective on the devastating impact this conflict is having on innocent Syrian children. The message to the public is “just because it’s not happening here, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.”
by 
Hi,
Great blog and a great video.
Be very interested to know what element of paid promotion went on this video. Its success is instructive to all of us in the NGO sector but we need to be able to separate out between organic and paid promotion. This is of particular importance to small NGOs who simply do not have any ad budget. For senior staff in those organisations, it’s important to know the difference between organic viral success and great content that has had significant paid promotion. It’s a minor point but worth considering.
Overall, I would really like to commend Save The Children for this piece of content. Empathy, solidarity and compassion rather than pity and guilt are the emotions NGOs should be trying to foster in all of their work.
Thanks
Ross Bailey
Campaigns officer
WaterAid
twitter.com/rossb82
I totally agree Ross, I am always mindful of this when I am commenting on the success of certain videos. I’ll contact Save The Children and see if anyone is willing to comment on the level of paid promotion. Thanks for the comment. David