Oxfam’s ongoing Red Line for Gaza initiative, with partners including Save the Children, Greenpeace, Action Aid and War Child, has already mobilised over one million calls to action from the British public.
And this week, the charity stepped up its calls for the Government to implement urgent measures to the end the atrocities in Gaza, with a campaign at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.
Devised by agency House of Oddities, the campaign appeared in Liverpool on a digital advertising van and OOH placement in BoxPark, with a parody of the Conservative Party’s 1978 Saatchi & Saatchi attack ad ‘Labour Isn’t Working’.
But where the original featured a dole queue (incidentally staged by party members from Hendon in North London), the new execution shows a protest march: a line of citizens holding placards demanding a ceasefire, an end to arms sales and to allow aid in. The strapline: “Inaction isn’t working.”
The campaign also incorporates hand-written letters from UK citizens written to Oxfam in solidarity with the innocent people of Gaza.
The activity urges the UK Government to back recognition of Palestine with concrete steps: securing an immediate ceasefire, restoring aid, ending the occupation, lifting the blockade and banning illegal settlements.
Oxfam spokesperson Rhaea Russell-Cartwright said: “The people of Gaza are enduring daily nightmares no human being should ever have to face. This crisis will scar not just this generation but generations to come. The UK cannot recognise Palestinian statehood and then simply walk away from the horrors happening on the ground in Gaza.”
House of Oddities CEO Sachini Imbuldeniya added: “We wanted to take one of the most famous pieces of political advertising in history and reframe it for today’s crisis. It’s not enough just to formally recognise the state of Palestine – we need to do more to help people suffering one of the worst genocides in modern history. This campaign is our reminder that advertising can do more than sell products – it can hold power to account.”
So, what is the consensus around the Decision Marketing office?
Naturally, countless versions of this poster have been produced across different formats for decades, and it is a frequent target for parody, both by other political parties and by satirists, so this is hardly an original idea.
However, few parodies could be this compelling; these are desparate times in Gaza, so anything that can bring about a resolution to the conflict has got to be welcomed.
Decision Marketing Adometer: A “hard-hitting” 9 out of 10
