World Vision child sponsor TV adverts banned
Howard Lake | 1 June 2006 | News
Football: 1, World Vision: 0. The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC), the body responsible for clearing television adverts for broadcast, has refused to allow World Vision’s child sponsorship adverts to appear on screen because they thought the ad was an unfair attack on football”.
World Vision planned to screen the adverts during the World Cup to encourage people to sponsor a child in the developing world.
The BACC’s judgement effectively bars the advert from being aired on TV in the UK.
The BACC was unhappy that the advert highlights the £49 million it has cost to sponsor the England football team comparing it with the 60p a day it costs to sponsor a child in the developing world. Actor Paul McGann supplied the voice-over for the ads.
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According to World Vision, the advert could be aired if the England Football team gives its permission. World Vision has made an approach to the Football Association in this regard but they have declined to comment on the ad or the BACC’s decision.
As a result of the BACC decision, the charity has had to spend more money to make versions of the ad which would be acceptable.
The 60-second commercial was self-filmed a young boy called Masidi from Malawi who, without access to a football, makes a ball from maize, plastic bags and string in order to have a match with his friends. The advert was made by World Vision to run on terrestrial and satellite stations throughout June and July.
There is a second shorter advert, which shows Masidi making his ball, and contrasts, in a tongue in cheek way, the three years spent in developing the World Cup match ball with the ten minutes it takes Masidi to make his.
Rudo Kwaramba, Director of Advocacy, Communications and Education at World Vision, said: “In our eyes, the advert is in no way anti-World Cup or anti-football. It simply uses the common language of football to point out the difference between western world affluence and developing world resourcefulness through the eyes of a sponsored child.
“The comparison between football sponsorship and child sponsorship is used simply to reflect the use of the same word with very different meanings, both in scope and in financial terms in the two contexts.”
The BACC told World Vision that they felt the adverts “suggested that money spent in the development and sponsorship of football was wasted and they could see no good reason for singling out football in this way particularly given that footballers do a lot for charity.”
Ironically World Vision sponsors include several high profile footballers and in a recent child sponsorship campaign Scottish and Northern Ireland footballers, including Rangers player Fernando Ricksen, played with a ball made from rags to show their support for child sponsorship.
World Vision will post the ads on its website www.sponsor.org so that others can make up their own minds. The charity is considering an appeal against the BACC decision.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.