# Reaction to cleft-palate ads?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 28, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408 "2013-08-28T15:57:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/1 "2013-08-28T15:57:17Z")
Wondering how other folk respond to the ads in papers and magazines (yeah - those paper things!) seeking donations for organizations that correct cleft palates in developing countries. At least that is what I assume they are, because I never read them. Instead, I do my best to obscure any view of the photos of disfigured children.
While I might be sympathetic to the fact that poor people are born with disfigurements, I’m not thrilled with seeing pictures of same over my morning coffee. I’m not sure what it would take to get me to contribute to their cause, but this approach surely doesn’t have that effect.
Am I a horribly unfeeling animal?
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### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/2 "2013-08-28T16:28:27Z")
“Sir, would you care to contribute to our cause?”
“Would I? WOULD I?”
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/3 "2013-08-28T16:36:11Z")
LOL! One of my faves!
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### Author:  [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/4 "2013-08-28T16:43:58Z")
I have a totally different issue with these ads, which is what I thought the thread would be about. I have no problem with seeing the disfigurements, but what always gets me is that they never show the “after” pictures. I’d think people would be a lot more motivated to give if they showed they the warm and fuzzy outcome of their gift. But apparently, at least in the case of Smile Train, they already have more [money than they know what to do with](http://blog.givewell.org/category/smile-train/), so I guess the ads are working just fine.
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### Author:  [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/5 "2013-08-28T17:53:07Z")
I can’t look at those ads. I turn the page as quickly as possible. There’s no way I’d ever donate to one of the organizations since a) I don’t want to encourage more ads, and b) I won’t look at the page to get donation information.
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### Author:  [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/6 "2013-08-28T18:07:53Z")
I issued my hatred for the smile train ads in a previous thread [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16589670&postcount=26http://).
While I may have downplayed the negative consequences of cleft palate. I still feel that on the list of serious problems in the third world, cleft palates are a rather low.
The ads work because the cleft pallet children are eye catching and so the people reading the papers won’t breeze over it. Also I think a lot of people judge a child’s worth by its cuteness, so the ability to make an ugly child into a cute child is certainly worth a donation.
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### Author:  [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/7 "2013-08-28T19:46:04Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#):
>
> … I still feel that on the list of serious problems in the third world, cleft palates are a rather low…
Considering that most of the people in this thread won’t so much as \*look _at a picture of the person, even when that person is an otherwise-adorable little cherub, I can’t even imagine the hardship of going through daily life looking like that, especially in areas that are … ah, less politically correct_ than modern Western(ized) countries.
- If anyone still uses that phrase?
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/8 "2013-08-28T19:48:02Z")
I don’t read dead tree material anymore, but I see ads for this on TV and I have to look away from the screen. I feel sorry for the kids who need this surgery, but I do my best to tune these ads out, to the point of changing the channel.
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### Author:  [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/9 "2013-08-28T22:31:25Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> “Sir, would you care to contribute to our cause?”
>
> “Would I? WOULD I?”
Most perfect response, ever.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/10 "2013-08-29T18:08:45Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#):
>
> Considering that most of the people in this thread won’t so much as \*look _at a picture of the person, even when that person is an otherwise-adorable little cherub, I can’t even imagine the hardship of going through daily life looking like that, especially in areas that are … ah, less politically correct_ than modern Western(ized) countries.
>
> - If anyone still uses that phrase?
Yeah, no kidding. Who exactly can argue that this isn’t an important factor in a child’s life if all of these priveleged Western people can’t even stand to look at what these kids have to live with?
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### Author:  [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reaction-to-cleft-palate-ads/667408/11 "2013-08-29T19:27:46Z")
Just to be clear I am in no way trying to minimize the suffering of these children. It’s just that given the relative infrequency of cleft pallet, (about 1 in every 2000 births) and the deadly health effects of other diseases (say malaria, HIV, cholera etc.) that affect a much larger proportion of the population, which can be treated much more cheaply, focusing attention and resources solely on this admittedly tragic minority seems to me to be a mistake.
When I see those ads the thought that runs through my mind is “How dare you show me all these ugly children” but rather “How dare you attempt to emotionally blackmail me”