Stupid ad agency gives fundraising the runs

It's hard for most people in the Western world to grasp the fact that diarrhea can be a fatal disease. Those of us who have worked to raise funds for water projects know the difficulty.

It looks like WaterAid of the UK may have hit the wall and tried to solve the problem by bringing in an ad agency.

Bad move.

Here's a TV spot, the centerpiece of the Dig toilets, not graves campaign.

(Or watch it here at YouTube.)

Okay, it's cute to watch a bunch of kids joyfully singing a potty-humor song about diarrhea. Twenty seconds have gone by, and there's not a clue about what the spot is about.

Then it gets even weirder. I can just hear the agency presentation: "When the sad African boy sings When it's just killed your sister and you're really going to miss her, diarrhea, diarrhea. -- it will jar viewers into reality."

Really, now.

You had -- on camera -- an English-speaking, sympathetic little boy whose sister died from diarrhea -- and you thought using him to provide a perceptual jolt was the way to go? Really? Really?

Once again, an ad agency screws up a fundraising message because they think word-play, mind-games, and symbolism communicate more than telling a story and making an offer.

I'll give them this, they actually managed to mention pit toilets. That's more real than a lot of agencies would manage. Unfortunately, they then majored on the size of the unsafe-water problem. That's a proven way to make sure people don't respond.

The other way to make sure you don't get any response is to leave out any response options. There's no URL, no phone number, not even a mailing address. I'm not sure what they think anybody who happens to be moved is going to do.

Fundraising isn't easy. Some situations -- like unsafe water -- are harder yet to get traction for. But don't make it worse by drinking the ad agency Kool-Aid.

Thanks to Adrants for the tip.

More Stupid nonprofit ads.