Afghanistan

This is a billboard, via the US military, currently running in Afghanistan. Why can’t Massoud be both (well, until he pulls the chord)? Says, Lt. Col. Allen McCormick, the former P&G marketing man behind this new effort to win Afghan hearts and minds and babies:

The [U.S.] military does two of three things well — they know who they want to reach and what they want to say, but they don’t know how to say it.

So, McCormick found a Kabul-based ad agency, Lapis, to develop the creative. Massoud is one of six cute babies used in the nationwide campaign. Let’s read that Utopian copy together. First, notice the use of bold letters on “Or Doctor,” and Caps on “Save Them.” Ooh, diabolically persuasive. Then: “If you build him a garden, he will plant roses. If you build him a battlefield, he will die a casualty.” That’s it, those are your only two choices, Afghan parents: rose boy or dead boy. Doctor or suicide bomber. If I was Massoud, I’d plant poppies. |via: Ad Age|