Applied Animation - Have we had enough of emotional campaigns?

I found an interesting article that questions the effectiveness of emotional charity campaigns.

http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2014/sep/29/poverty-porn-charity-adverts-emotional-fundraising

As something that I have been questioning myself, I was highly interested to find an article that highlights it too.

First handedly I see my dad turning over channels when emotional ad campaigns come on. Their typical layout, showing an african child crying, showing a child on a floor crying, head in hands. Showing children thin to the bone. Distressing images that now, kind of have been desensitised.

The impact of these emotional images has been lost because we see them all to often on charity campaigns, you could almost say that that image of an african child looking helplessly up at the camera has been overused, and therefore the public has been desensitised to seeing them.

One of the good things about an animated campaign is that it isn't going to look like a regular charity campaign. Instantly I have got some individuality to play with there, something different.


I want to campaign of WHAT oxfam DO. WHAT oxfam has DONE towards the refugee crisis. WHAT they are DOING. As a way of getting donations . Sending out the message "we did this because of your help and need your help to continue this work" Sending out positivity as well as negativity.

What positive they are doing in a negative world.

I feel this is as important as highlighting the negative. Its all good showing us images of tragedy, drowning children etc, emotionally shocking, causing controversy, showing this negativity, exposing this negativity so we donate, but how about taking the different perspective of pronouncing that they are there to help, thanks to donations we bring aid, water sanitation, we are there with the refugees fisrt-handedly.

In my animation, I want to have that balance of negativity and positivity. By showing these refugees in emotional situations is exposing the negativity that is going on and needs to be exposed more, especially as the conflict enters its 5th year  and shows no signs of stopping. Having that green light there to show that Oxfam are there to support, is the positivity. How they are bringing light to Syria, how they are campaigning with the #WithSyria campaign to bring light.


I decided to also do some primary research of my own and I asked 15 people if they feel that emotional campaigns are still effective and the right way to persuade donations? And if not what do they think makes a good charity campaign?

The people I asked were in the 18-50 age bracket.

Here are a selection of the best replies I got;

- There is a creative way to go about making the audience feel emotion, the picture of a child looking upset has been over-used, you have to be creative.

- It just makes you guilty more than emotional, when we feel guilt we just kind of wallop in self-pity feeling bad about how we go about our lives, rather than wanting to vote

- No Im fed up with being shown emotional images, I would rather see your money making a difference.. I saw something recently that exposed that most of the main charity leaders were like multi-millionaires which doesn't sit right with me, so I would rather see the honesty of where the money goes and what the charity do.

- It would be nice for a change to see some people being helped instead of being pictured in need of help all the time.

- Theres too many of them in our society, to the point where we just get fed up with seeing them. I think with the fact your doing an animation, that will instantly look unique and stand out from all the other stuff that all is the same type of campaign to me.

- I think theres a balance of emotion that is good to have, but just showing crying kids and stuff is kind of over-used and it also makes you think, what have the campaign film-makers done to the child to make them cry? because surely thats just as immoral as whats happening to them.

- I find the emotional ones quite effective, it's just how you go about it. You don't want to go too overboard and show drowning kids and stuff because no one finds that nice to see, its controversial and it shocks but does it really make you donate?

Most of the consensus is that there is a balance to achieve in being emotional, how the medium of animation makes it stand out and capture peoples visual interests to get a point across, and how making you feel guilt from being overly emotional in such a way could deter you from donating.

http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2013/sep/02/effective-emotive-appeals

I found another article that highlights this.

Where I found the quote;

"Fundraising is most successful when it's based on establishing good relationships with donors and developing a bond of trust between the charity and the donor,"

This relationship can be maintained by showing what the charity is setting out to achieve, in my case it would be a campaign showing Oxfam bringing light to Syria.

Also another interesting point was raised;
"Shang says that academic research has actually found that when people feel extreme negative emotion they go into a state of withdrawal, and are therefore unlikely to take action and give money."

This is part of the information I received from my questionnaire. I found it interesting how we can be made to feel so emotional about something yet not have that massive desire to put a stop to it or change it in some way (by donating).. It kind of reveals how complicated we are as a race. 

These extracts pronounce more positive feelings being more effective than the negative;

"The mistake charities make is that they keep going out with the need emotion because it works short-term, but they don't put enough emphasis on the reward emotions," he says. "These are important as otherwise people will just give up. We can only go so long without getting a reward."

"Others believe there is little place for guilt in particular, even with short-term giving. Bambos Neophytou, head of marketing and customer strategy at Virgin Media, and who co-authored the book Guilt Trip, says that guilt may work in driving awareness of a problem, but it is positive emotions that will result in people taking actions."

This really emphasises to me how I need to have that balance of negative and positive within my campaign, by showing some people in need and showing in a way oxfams help I feel is a great way of going about with that.