While browsing through the Journal Sentinel this morning, I came across an ad that somewhat bothered me. It’s a new ad by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Building Partners for Humanity organization.
The ad is trying to bring awareness to the large medical costs of having leukemia. But what’s confusing (and a little offensive) is that they use an image of a man dressed in a hospital gown holding up a cardboard sign that says “Will work for $2,456,782.92″. What’s the point here? Are they saying that leukemia patients are like homeless people? That they have no money to pay their bills so they are, in essence, homeless? That seems a bit silly to me. Not to mention, a stretch for the truth. No, I think what they were trying to do is use a homeless person visual as a backdrop to create sympathy and that’s it.
So here’s my question to whoever put this one together: If you have a cause that needs some sympathy, are you going to just slap an image of homeless people all over it — even if the cause has NOTHING to do with being homeless? I’m sure if I was homeless and saw this ad, I’d be a little offended. How about use this image for the real cause– homelessness! Now, not to sound insensitive, I do have much sympathy for people that are fighting leukemia. And I’m sure the medical bills associated with this fight are astronomical and that saddens me. But from a marketing perspective, the ad should stick to not mixing up problems in this world. It’s one thing to garner sympathy for the homeless by using an image of them in an ad. It’s illogical to use it to garner sympathy for an entirely separate problem in this world.
