It’s not just for-profit companies that seek to create effective ads that will promote the organization and entice consumers to give them money; charities need to advertise too. Haitian non-profit Water Is Life employed DDB New York to create a unique ad for the charity, and the result is a striking yet humourous video in which ordinary Haitians read the whiney tweets of Twitter users who use the hashtag “#firstworldproblems.” The image of a young boy saying, “I hate when my leather seats aren’t heated” while sitting on a pile of dirt and debris in front of a dilapidated building is compelling in its irony. In my opinion, this is a very clever advertising angle; it appeals to the target demographic of middle-class/wealthy people in western societies by relating to them in a fun way that also manages to get the message across. It puts what some of us would call “problems” into perspective by showing people who have real problems and actually need help. The video induces an appropriate amount of guilt without coming off as sappy or begging as charity advertisements often do, which in my opinion is a significant achievement.

See the video for yourself here:

http://www.businessinsider.com/ddbs-firstworldproblems-haiti-water-ad-2012-10