This is Barnardos Ireland’s new 60 second TV ad for their ‘Help Change A Child’s Future’ fundraising campaign.
Harrowing, isn’t it? It ends with the warning “What happens to us as children changes who we become”. What though do you think it’s about? Hear the name “Barnardos” and you’ll know they do great work with children, you’ll know they are one of Ireland’s top charities.
You may not know though that they have a current funding shortfall of almost €1.2 million of the €5.9 million they need to keep their services going or that of every euro they spend is spent directly on their work with children.
What you also won’t see from that ad is that it’s quite simply a major public appeal for support to prevent the closure of services across Ireland. This, to me, is quite a big failing in the ad, as emotive as it is, and is somewhat of an opportunity lost to connect with me.
From the press release I received this morning:
12th October, 2009. Barnardos have today launched a major public appeal for support to prevent the closure of services across Ireland. This appeal comes as a result of a shortfall in funding for 2009 and 2010. The leading Irish children’s charity which provides services to vulnerable children and families in over 42 projects across Ireland is projecting a 20% shortfall in voluntary funds in 2009 with a further substantial gap predicted for 2010.
The shortfall in voluntary income is a reflection of the difficult circumstances many donors, both individuals and companies, have found themselves in this year. However, the children’s charity has also seen a reduction in statutory funding.
What I don’t like about the ad is that basically we’re being guilted into feeling we should give (more) money, rather than being educated as to how that could help. Despite the Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay saying:
“Our services and projects around the country are right now working with over 5,500 children and families who are suffering from terrible hurts caused by poverty, disadvantage, neglect and addiction. Barnardos works tirelessly to help change children’s futures, to create better childhoods and to give those children opportunities for brighter futures. We do not want to stop providing that help for even one of those children and for that we need the public’s support.”
He continued, “We truly appreciate all the support people have given us to date and we understand the financial difficulties that many families and companies are facing. We are therefore appealing to those who can, to please give. The Celtic Tiger never reached the homes of the children we work with and recent cuts in education, social welfare and increased waiting lists for vital services are weighing ever more heavily on those families who already had so little.”
and the press release goes on to read:
Barnardos is working hard to protect the services they provide to children and families but the uncertainty around funding is a major concern. The funding shortfall could mean that hundreds of children may not be able to access a Barnardos service and those who are attending one may have their services discontinued. The impact of such a closure for the children Barnardos works with would be devastating.
I’m still not educated any more as to what actual effect the closure of these services will actually have. This is a big problem for me. As much charity work as I’ve done and as much as I’ve seen, I still see the emotional tugging-on-the-heartstrings as being far less effective than “This is what we do and the great effects this work can have”. To me, the message at the end of their press release would have been far more effective:
We have worked very hard to ensure there has been no impact on our direct services to children and families. This includes our own staff agreeing to a pay freeze and re-structuring and re-allocation of resources to ensure continued service delivery to those who need it most. Our commitment is to the children and families we work with and we are doing everything in our power to ensure they are not impacted.
Now that’s a huge commitment from them. Really is. Visiting the microsite that they’ve et up for this campaign, I can see their “What we do” page including some quite harrowing Childhood facts.
I was recently invited over to the Barnardos office for a blogger outreach evening, a preview of this new ad and an opportunity to talk to those involved. I really regret not being able to go due to work commitments now because it’s that sort of information that I need to know about a charity. It’s why I went to meet Carelocal, it’s how I became involved with Barretstown and I think now it’s about time I put my money (so to speak) where my mouth is and put into action some of this stuff that I’m supposed to know about. I’m not much of a fundraiser, but the web stuff I can do.
It may not help change things but it’s better than nothing.
What do you think of the new ad? Is it something you’d act on? Something you’re like to respond to? If you’d like to show your support, you can find out more about the campaign here and find Barnardos over on Facebook and on twitter as well.
The ad, though harrowing doesn’t really portray the urgency of the charities situation does it? It doesn’t make it sound like they are in any more need of money than they would usually be.
That said, I’d hate to see them go under, the amount of children in need of help in this country is a lot bigger than people think.
I usually don’t give to charities that have ads on tv. Not because I feel they’re wasting money or anything - I understand the basic principle of attracting people’s attention by the medium’s possible to do so en masse - but moreso because ads tend to BLAME the viewers for the situations the charity are trying to stop.
Connect with me by making me sympathise, but don’t blame me for the circumstances and try and guild money out of me.
What is the origins of the Barnados name ? The boy in the photo and the video was very good, the video seems based on violence, domestic or otherwise. When I was at Kilbarrack station going into Dublin for pints with my friend Seán on Sunday evening, boys were waging a war of words, then rocks and bottles, luckily, did not get hit crossing over the bridge to the other side.
Hi all. Many thanks for your comments and feedback. I was hoping to answer some of your questions here if I can. I apologise for the length of my comment in advance!
With regard to the origin of the name -
Barnardos was founded by Irishman, Dr Thomas Barnardo, who was born in Dame Street, Dublin. (The new square in Dame Street is now actually named Dr. Thomas Barnardos Square)
He attended school in Dublin and left Ireland to train as a doctor in London, with plans to become a medical missionary in China.
He was appalled by the conditions he saw some of the children in London living in and made the decision to stay there. He established his first Barnardos centre in 1867 focusing on education for disadvantaged children.
In 1962, Barnardos began to work in local communities with children and families in Ireland.
We are a wholly independent organisation and all funds raised in Ireland go to the work we do here in Ireland. There are also Barnardos in Australia and New Zealand.
With regard to the TV ad we were not trying to make people feel guilty and I am really sorry if that is how you felt after seeing it. It wasn’t our intention.
We set out to produce an ad that wasn’t controversial, but showed real, raw issues. In fact, each scene you see in the ad is based around information contained in case studies about the children and families we work with.
We wanted to create something that showed a lot of the environmental and domestic issues that we see children and families dealing with everyday, but from a child’s perspective. We did not want to apportion blame on parents or any other group in society, but to show the vulnerability of a child who experiences these concerns.
Whilst the ad is a depiction of the issues we deal with, we are not saying that this is every experience of every child who comes to Barnardos. Rather, what we hoped the viewer would get a sense of is the variety of concerns affecting young people we work with. The boy in the ad is essentially at a crossroads – his life could go either way. But with Barnardos help, we CAN change his future.
If you’re interested in learning more about the work we’re doing, please check out our website – Barnardos.ie - there is information on what we do and also interviews with project workers from our centre’s if you’d like to hear case studies about the children we work with every day.
Regards
Ruth Guy, Barnardos
In my opinion tv add is just hopeless. I would like to see hope in it, and therefore I would support it. If Im supporting something, I need to believe there is going to be CHANGE done. It is a pity, I haven’t see in this ad any CHANGE that Branardos is in reality doing. People are willing in participating in something good. The last bit of add was funeral….which means death…which is end… Why would I pay money if there is nothing left?
reminds me of a kitten.
Add was a well presented collage of brutal reality. More interesting to me is the music though. Who is it?
The music is by James McMorrow - you can download the track for free at http://www.barnardos.ie
i think this is a great ad. very well produced. i understand point above regarding hope-however, this ad shows reality and makes people think…and react. remember the famine ads of the eighties?-they didnt show hope or resolution- simply the problem-leaving us to choose to react.showing us resolution only serves to make us feel good about ourselves…and then forget about the ad and the kids out there- that we don’t know about and can easily forget