Ogilvy sends TV into space to highlight plight of Rohingya children forced to flee their homes
Ogilvy and non-government organisation BRAC have given a voice to Rohingya children forced to flee their homes in Myanmar in a campaign designed to raise awareness of their plight.
Ogilvy’s Singapore-based ASEAN chief creative officer Ajab Samrai spent two weeks in the Rohingya refugee city near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border filming their shocking stories.
The campaign, which hopes to drive donations through the BRAC website, includes a three-minute film, #SpaceonEarth, highlighting the horrors witnessed by children. They recount their stories on a TV floating into space.
Nearly 700,000 Rohingya people have fled their homes in the northern Rakhine province of Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017, many of them children.
“Over 30 years in the industry, I’ve learnt and acquired powerful creative tools to sell products and services and I’ve always felt these tools can be utilized as a force for good,” Samrai said. “I have two young children and as the Rohingya crisis unfolded I was compelled to do something about it – so much so, I went to the camps and lived with the Rohingya for two weeks.
“I wanted to give the most unempowered people on the planet a voice. Nobody was listening to their plight on earth, so I gave them a voice in space.”
BRAC estimates that US$56m is needed for its humanitarian efforts, US$30m of which is still required.
BRAC Institute of Educational Development director Erum Mariam said: “We have witnessed women and children bearing the brunt of the crisis. I have seen children shouldering adult responsibilities to help their families. However they are still amazingly resilient and take up every opportunity to play, learn and just be children.
“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, and we need partners to help us for the long haul. We thank Texel Foundation and Ogilvy for coming forward to help carry our message to the world.”
The campaign, which marks a year since the exodus began, is being supported by the Texel Foundation.
W. T. F. Sending a TV into space is a stunt that will only serve the ad agency’s ends — the awards game. How does this help the poor Rohingya people in any meaningful way? All this amounts to is putting up a couple of testimonials. That is nothing compared to the long-standing, genuine efforts to highlight this human rights tragedy by news outlets like Al Jazeera… only the journalists don’t need to resort to the shameless act of putting words in the refugee kids’ mouths to fit some “Big Idea”.
As usual, the agency hides behind the BS excuse of “there is a lot of work to be done, but we hope to raise XXX dollars through this initiative”. Put your money where your mouth is, use the entry fees for Cannes and whatnot, and instead channel it into money for the Rohingya people.
ReplyWhy waste money to send something to space when you can use that money wisely to actually help and get the funding amount needed? Are we hoping for aliens to be generous and watch the tv and send help?
ReplyAs useful as Prez Dummy J Trumph’s Space Force
ReplyWhat a load of irrelevant rubbish. Peak [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]?
ReplyIf it leads to increased awareness, donations and action for the Rohingya…then it works. Only time will tell. But yes, at first glance it does seem well-intentioned, but gimmicky.
ReplyAnonymous 5 Sep 18
Reply“If it leads to increased awareness, donations and action for the Rohingya…then it works”. [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines], stop posting your name as Anonymous and have the balls to come out of hiding.
This is utter space garbage //
Ogilvy looked at the Palau Pledge, saw how many awards it had won, thought “why can’t we have some of that?” and then looked for a similar cause.
Cynical. Awfully cynical. Not Grey iSea levels of cynical, but close
ReplyYou are one of the few agencies in Myanmar. What did THEY do? Did your local agency even raise their voice? Probably not!
ReplyDear Ogilvy, put the real talent in the spotlight. Yong Ping should be given the quotes, accolade and applause here.
ReplyOnce again, I think Yong Ping will be more than happy to not be credited with this mess
Reply“I wanted to give the most unempowered people on the planet a voice. Nobody was listening to their plight on earth, so I gave them a voice in space.”
What a load of cabbage. I can almost imagine the old folks leading this brainstorm session, sneakily having the thought of winning awards in the back of their heads (and the young people cringing at this idea). We talk about letting young people being our future, and yet we let our campaigns be run by old people whose ideas are just rotten and yet have the most say, simply because they have stuck around the longest..
Reply“Nobody was listening to their plight on earth, so I gave them a voice in space.”
….what?
ReplyThis is, dare I say it, a complete waste of space.
ReplyI saw the headline and thought “this sounds as meaningless as the United Nations; and I think Ogilvy is using someone else’s misfortune for their own gain”.
ReplyNow I have read the article, I was right.
Shame on you Ogilvy….I hope your new CEO ends this sort of rubbish.
Uh but in space, no-one can hear you scream.
Reply[Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]
Cannes is really putting pressure on these guys to do anything, anyhow, from anywhere just to win awards.
2. The real thing: Why to invest so much money to generate donation. !
3. Now the idea: If the intention is to telecast through space.. isn’t it cheaper and powerful do it on ground like giant messages on the fields so that satellite captures it. And more human.
4. The mentality – Ph let’s do something like Redbull.
Sad to see all these.
ReplySo creative….
ReplyReeks of being an outright [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] for sake of awards. [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]. Sad to see this kind of work coming from Ogilvy. I thought the agency had some [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]. Using the sad stories of Rohingya crisis for [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]
ReplyPeak advertising privilege.
ReplyThe ultimate insult is this quote: “… as the Rohingya crisis unfolded I was compelled to do something about it – so much so, I went to the camps and lived with the Rohingya for two weeks.”
To flaunt the fact that you have the ability to waft in and out of others’ real suffering as you please – just to [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] spend more money on a no-impact gimmick based on it, is disgusting.
This is one of the cases which will rapidly kill advertising agencies’ future. Clients are anyway questioning the role of an agencies and the big guys’ roles with fat salary. If the big guys practice this kind of kiddish work, the end will be soon.
The regular day to day work which clients pay for (and the job of an agency) is so poor in this region and agencies are still investing senior people’s time, money and effort to do this kind of only-for-awards work.
I also think Cannes lion is also in trouble for creating this culture. If they award this particular piece they will dig their own grave.
Hello Ogilvy APAC/WPP: Please look at what Nike is doing? What BBH or W+K is doing with their clients on real problems?
Please don’t look at Archive or Cannes shortlists. You guys are giant and have power. Please use it with responsibility.
ReplyI cannot recall a more self-serving and disingenuous campaign that has surfaced in recent times.
[Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] seems to imply that we should all be ashamed of ourselves for not having the means and funds to travel, meet with and feed contrived lines to these Rohingya children. Wonderful for you (is this campaign solely to the credit of [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]) to be able to leave your highly lucrative job for a couple of weeks and mingle with a group that you will likely [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines].
The plight of this disadvantaged group is real. Not something to be capitalised on for awards shows that do nothing more than allow inflated egos to further peacock overblown and trite achievements.
You are the one who needs to do better, Ogilvy, not the whole of humankind you’ve sought to shame with this campaign.
ReplyHonestly speaking, another sad stunt by Ogilvy to make noise about human issues on the back of simply trying to win awards.
Very very shameful indeed. [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] get a grip of reality and think about what you are doing.
ReplySomebody from Ogilvy accosted me today trying to say this is real work and i need to check facts but the truth spilled out eventually. This is being entered into award shows through BARC. A small time NGO in Bangladesh. Mumbrella please edit this but the truth will come out.
ReplyShame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame.
Replythis is so low, empty & self-serving. Even for [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines].
ReplyClassic [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] burden. Reeks of [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]. A TV in space won’t help the crisis. The issue is deeply historical, political and religious. Rapes. Murders. Burning of villages. These issues are known and have been reported in all major news channels. How does sending a TV into space solve a problem this problem?
ReplyHave your say