Mods, feel free to move this thread if it’s in the wrong place.
This morning while I was dressing, a commercial for Child Fund came on (formerly Christian Children’s Fund). It shows a bearded guy in a dirty alley, talking about needy kids, and asking for donations to help/sponsor a child. This is not a criticism of the charity, simply an observation on the content of the advertisement.
The thing that struck me is, he sits with a small child on his lap, talking about how poor Maria is starving, her parents are dead, she has three smaller siblings to care for, she will go to bed hungry that night, she is afraid for her future, etc. and the child sits there looking sad. Are these kids actors? If the child is truly suffering that badly, it just seems cruel to use her as a prop, talking about her in the third person about how she’s on death’s door. If she really is a suffering child, does she not speak English, and therefore doesn’t know what he’s saying? Do they tell them to look sad for the filming?
No real point to this, just something I always think about when I see these commercials. To me, if the children are for real, it is mean and cruel to exploit them for the commercials (even though the goal is to get viewers to donate). Does the end justify the means?