On March 5, 2014 — a 90-second video released by the the organization Save the Children that went viral on youtube, “Still the Most Shocking Second a Day”, a mere sequel to the “Most Shocking Second a Day”. The organization used the ad to spread awareness of the Syrian refugee crisis that is still happening to this day. The ad shows a much pragmatic view on what a Syrian refugee undergoes in their country. In addition, the ad showed the crisis in an imaginative way, a what if scenario located in England; to imagine vicariously if they were placed in a similar scenario like the British girl. This awareness has garnered an abundant of views and attention on the crisis everywhere, notably for using a British girl to play as a Syrian girl.
You might ask what is the Syrian refugee crisis? It is a crisis of millions of Syrians fleeing from their homes, it has been going on since the outbreak of the civil war in March 2011. Many are escaping the on-going conflict and sought to neighboring countries near or within Syria. According to Amnesty International, the amount of refugees in the region is more than 4.5 million refugees from Syria, now are in five countries: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt since then Syria is currently displaced. Many families and children have been killed and those who are vulnerable are in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria. In fact, Syria holds the biggest humanitarian crisis worldwide which is still holds it today.
Most importantly, the ad choose the city London, not Aleppo or any Syrian city as the prime setting. The “Most Shocking Second a Day” begins a timeline of a young girl blowing out candles on a cake on her birthday, and doing normal activities like any other kid would do. Then, the image turns to a calamity; destruction, bombings, chaos, fear, and death plagues the rest of the ad. The sequel to the orginal ad adds on to the story and it shows the girl’s adversity on surviving. As the young girl experiences these horrifying situations it makes one sympathize with her. Yet, the charity choose a British girl, a white girl, to play the role and a setting that does not correlate to the crisis whatsoever.
Now, viewers watching the ad will immediately sympathize with the girl.
If the ad replaces the British girl with a Syrian girl and location to a city that holds the largest crisis of refugees will it not garner sympathy?
Considering the augment of views and commentary to the ad, the definitive answer would be no. As many would suggest that people only care about something if it dealt with a white person, the reality of advertising. This particular mindset will give factual awareness but a distorted view of what is actually happening in Syria. Instead, viewers will just ignore the true reality of Syria. The ad could have shown important information about the crisis, or a more elaborate perspective on the matter.
A fictional ad leaves people forgetting about what they’ve seen the following day. Nonetheless it is solely “whitewashing” the crisis. We need to include people and location talking about the issue—not just a blimp of a false scenario that doesn’t get people thinking. It is spreading a lie of what the crisis actually is and does not give the viewer of what it is nor whom are affected.
