Getting the Message Across to the Right Targeted Market

In my Advertising class, several of us and the professor shared ads that were comical, smart, simple, and emotional. One ad that caught my interest was a print ad my professor showed us that encourage individuals to spread awareness of child abuse. 

The Anar Foundation created an ad that was specifically targeting children who are ten years old and below. The video showcases what the print ad looks like and how it works. At first we see a poster of a boy who has no emotion on their face and it says on the print ad, “sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering.” Of course when you see this poster as an adult, you may not think it’s special nor emotional. However, the video further explains that if you are a child under ten, you are able to see from their view of the same child on the poster with cuts and bruises on their face, and it states “if somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you” and it list the child abuse service phone number. Anar Foundation set up their print ad for children to see a different image because if they were with their abuser, they would not be able to see it. 

The Anar Foundation did a fantastic job with their marketing campaign. When you look at the poster from a adult’s persepctive, it does look plain and the child’s face is unemotional. Yet, when you see it from a child’s point of view it explains more about the child abuse and reaches out to them. This campaign was literally like exchanging secrets between the Anar Foundation to those who get abused. There are many child abuse campaigns that seek out others to get help or be aware of child abuse. However, with the Anar Foundation ad it’s only targeting children and they can only see it. This is brilliant because it’s children who need the help the most and by setting up this message secretly, they now know where to go. It is not creating awareness to the public in general but specifically children who are being abused. The Youtube video of this ad has over 7 million views. 

Although this is an effective ad, a classmate in my advertising class raised a question regarding this ad. By exposing this ad through video, wouldn’t people now know what the poster does? When I heard this I agreed with what my classmate stated. It’s true that people will now know what the poster does and it would not be as effective to children. However, another classmate stated that the posters could be different, and you would not know who marketed this campaign. 

Overall, the Anar Foundation had created an ad campaign that was simple, intelligent, clear, and unique. I have never seen an ad that specifically targets a market in a secret way. This ad was not creating awareness to the public but to those who get hurt the most: children.