Monday, September 10th 2001, the day before aeroplanes struck the World Trade Centre in New York.
Sunday, August 5th, 1945, the day before the Atom bomb was unleashed on Hiroshima.
Tuesday, June 15th, 1976, the day before the riots erupted in Soweto.
Tuesday, November 21st, 1963, The day before John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas
9 comments:
An interesting idea and an attempt at being powerful and provocative. Normally this kind of thing wouldn't bother me, but I found this campaign a little exploitive. Although, I suppose tragedy has been used throughout history to manipulate people into doing things, such as start wars, so why not use it to sell newspapers?
Hmmm, an interesting point there Al. I never considered the exploitive angle. I merely thought it was a powerful statement. I suppose it would have been more compelling if it had simply been an art exhibit and not a vehicle to flog newspapers. Good point Al.
It's not normally the kind of thing that would occur to me, but for some reason, this time it did. I think it might have been the picture of JFK watching his children play and knowing that the very next day their daddy would be murdered so viciously before the public eye. I realize that that was a long time ago, but how long is long enough before you can take advantage of a person's death (or many people's deaths as is the case in the other photographs) for the benefit of commerce. Maybe, it's just fatherhood that has softened me, maybe I'm just growing up...*shivers*
BTW, I agree with you, if this was an art exhibit, I would have been completely fine with it and considered it very powerful indeed. Funny where that line is drawn.
I echo Al's comments. Seeing such powerful images was moving, but then I got a sick feeling realizing their intent was to push product.
If anything, the message of this campaign is that newspapers are the media of yesterday. Think about it - when a newspaper is printed, the news it is reporting is already old.
Newspapers have been struggling with that since the advent of the internet. I think they need to change their paradigm , maybe consider a little rebranding. Instead of calling themselves newspapers, perhaps they can call themselves history rags or editorials. I mean, the one useful thing they can provide is commentary on events by good writers. Too bad they're all so skewed and biased. They're not even getting THAT right.
Exploitative. I agree.
Yo dugu,
People need to come to Africa and see how life really is. There's nothing about them pics that ain't real. Come to Kenya where you die and no one knows until they find your rotting body in a mass grave. Fuck the celebrities and dignitaries, pain to the masses is what touches me.
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