Is this frog-licking girl too “into nature”?
Posted by Tom Megginson | 8-09-2012 14:55 | Category: Education
Copyranter shared this example of the UK’s Project Wildthing with the headline, “This Is—Maybe?—Not The Best Image For A Back To Nature Poster.”
It’s hard not to agree. The attention-getting image is part of a massive out-of-home (obviously) and online campaign to reconnect British children with nature. The press release explains, “The aim of the billboards is simple: to get people to spend more time outdoors. The poster depicts a young girl, Ivy Bond, licking a frog, with the caption, ‘Get Into Nature, along with a link to the campaign website.”
This campaign is sponsored by the UK’s National Health Service. They should have listened to their American counterpart, the Centers for Disease Control, who published a kids’ podcast titled “Don’t Kiss a Frog” that warns of the danger of contracting Salmonellosis from wild or domestic reptiles and amphibians.
The Project Wild Thing press release goes on to say, “Spending time outdoors is fun, it’s good for you and it’s free. Given the opportunity, kids love being outdoors. They just need to be given the opportunity. If we don’t act now, a generation of children will miss out on developing a fundamental connection with nature.”
I agree with that. My son is a quintessential nature boy. But you’d better believe we practise smart hygiene when interacting with the wild.
Considering that the UK’s advertising regulator, the ASA, is incredibly strict when it comes to requiring that “ads addressed to, targeted directly at, or featuring children do not contain anything that will cause them physical, mental, or moral harm,” I’m surprised this one ever saw the light of day.
Besides which, it’s not even cute. It’s just gross.
What do you think?
Advertiser:
Project Wild Thing
Source:
Copyranter
