I Smurf the Smell of Napalm in the Morning...

UNICEF's newest commercial is the least smurfy thing you're likely to hear about all year. The organization (the United Nations Children's Fun, for those of you who are acronymically challenged) wants to really shock people, but has found that it's too hard to get people's attention with the same old images of Third World suffering.

Philippe Henon, a spokesman for Unicef Belgium, said his agency had set out to shock, after concluding that traditional images of suffering in Third World war zones had lost their power to move television viewers. "It's controversial," he said. "We have never done something like this before but we've learned over the years that the reaction to the more normal type of campaign is very limited."

So, what's more shocking that images of human suffering in the Third World? Images of Smurfs suffering in an imaginary world, of course!



Guys, this is real. They showed a preview of this ad the other night in Belgium, the nation where The Smurfs were invented in 1958. It opens with the happy Smurfs singing and dancing in Smurf Village (you know..."La la la la la la...la la la la la...La la la la la la...La la la la la!") until a barrtage of rocks and missiles and Weapons of Smurf Desturction (WSD's) rain down upon their happy little blue heads.

You can see the result. Only a crying Baby Smurf is left alive. The rest have the living smurf bombed right out of them.

The advertising agency behind the campaign, Publicis, decided the best way to convey the impact of war on children was to tap into the earliest, happiest memories of Belgian television viewers. They chose the Smurfs, who first appeared in a Belgian comic in 1958.

Julie Lamoureux, account director at Publicis for the campaign, said the agency's original plans were toned down.

"We wanted something that was real war - Smurfs losing arms, or a Smurf losing a head -but they said no."

Man, I would really love to see that rejected commercial. Like Kill Bill but totally recreated by Smurfs.

It's a pretty good idea for a commercial, I suppose. Killing beloved cartoon characters is certain to get people's attention. Is it really bad for Western Civilization, though, that we're more shocked by the deaths of make-believe little blue guys with beards than the real-world deaths of millions in places like Africa, Haiti and the Middle East? That UNICEF couldn't just make a commercial about what's really going on in the world, but instead had to draw a parallel to nostalgia kid's shows for attention?