YOU WILL RECALL when the ice bucket challenge took over social media last year.
The campaign raised millions for motor neurone disease and helped raise awareness of the debilitating disease.
A new campaign for the Motor Neurone Disease Assocation makes reference to the ice bucket challenge and seeks to build on its success. However, one of their new outdoor ads has left some people scratching their heads.
The ad features 34-year-old Michael Smith, who was recently diagnosed with MND, explaining that he didn’t do the ice bucket challenge last summer and was diagnosed with it himself a few months later.
Unfortunately, some have interpreted the wording of the ad to mean that Smith was diagnosed with MND because he didn’t partake in the ice bucket challenge.
Some have accused the ad agency of inadvertently engaging in victim blaming.
While others have defended the Motor Neurone Disease Association and criticised those who have made light of the ad.
For its part, the Motor Neurone Disease Assocation has stated that they did not intend for the ad to be interpreted this way.
As Chris James of MNDA told The Drum:
We thought it was powerful and poignant, and Michael, and his family, were all keen to share it too with as wide an audience as possible. At no point did anyone involved in the poster campaign development think that ‘bad karma’ would be the interpretation of Michael’s poster quote.
- Written by Amy O’Connor and originally published on DailyEdge.ie
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