Ninety percent of the time I write about videos for products or services. No random cat videos here! Occasionally I will include videos designed to sell an idea. And today I want to share two with you—though as some critics have pointed out, one of the videos is actually designed to sell tee-shirts (as well as an idea).
The first one (thank you Sharon Lake) is NSFW—depending on your work. But it really asks the question of why things are considered unsafe for work (or actually unsafe to be uttered by children) when other things that are literally unsafe (as in physically and mentally disastrous) are OK to talk about.
It’s from a group called FuckH8.
A number of people have lambasted the video. Ms. Magazine said FCKH8 Exploits Little Girls to Sell T-Shirts . The Washington Post wrote The many, many problems with FCKH8′s ‘potty-mouthed princess’ video.
These critics’ basic premise is that FUCKH8 is a for-profit tee-shirt company exploiting various issues and people (this is not their first campaign) and the money they give to charities for every shirt they sell is not enough.
I disagree. The message is spread even if people don’t buy a shirt. And when people do buy, the money goes to a cause to combat problems in society AND all shirt buyers become walking billboards for change. Buyers (and FCKH8) not only donate part of the purchase price, buyers donate the “media” of their body to spread important messages. Critics seem to ignore the positive power spread by the videos and the shirts.
There is humor in this video. There’s shock too (unless you live in a house like mine where kids have been saying words like this almost since they first began to speak). And there’s also awe. The awe (when feeling and thinking merge in a powerful moment) happened for me at 1:00 in the video when the five girls count out 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with each one appearing alone on screen. They then ask which of them will be sexually assaulted or raped—citing a stat that one in five girls and women are.
Think about that. Feel that.
I was going to share only the FCKH8 video with you but I just came across another from Greenpeace France (via the Twitter feed of Myriam Labidi in Lausanne). The video is in French which I don’t understand, but the power of this simple animation is in its humor and its awe moment when I realized what was happening. Check it out. (oh.. hah… it actually is a cat video– but it’s not random!)
[[[UPDATE]]] I let Myriam know I’d included her on this blog and she kindly offered to translate the video. Here’s what she sent:
Most of the Petit Navire’s (a French canned tuna brand) tuna is fished with a method devastating the oceans : the fish-aggregating devices.
The fish-aggregating devices plunder the fish resources and generate important amounts of unwanted catches, species which are not targeted by the tuna vessels are discarded dead or dying in the Sea.
They maximise the tuna vessels catches, which is dramatically decreasing the tuna resources.
We ask Petit Navire to stop being supplied with fish-aggregating devices and to switch to a sustainable fishing method.
You can do something ! Ask petit Navire to stop the carnage : http://grnpc.org/IgHq4
