Sorry Bill Hicks, but there is (some) brilliance in advertising...

There is a large, gaping black part of me that adheres to the to the sticky stand-up of Bill Hicks (NSFW: LANGUAGE), loathing every ounce of advertising and every microdrop of marketing therein. The dirt and grime of the bad marketing seems to always absorb every ounce of the good. But on some very rare occasions something will be so beautiful - be it tragic beauty, visual beauty, fluid or otherwise - that it'll knock me on my wallet faster than a Disaronno on the rocks (Its warm and sensual taste makes me wish it would never end).*

German agency Kolle Rebbe Werbeagentur GmbH won a prestigious Black Pencil Award in the Illustration category at the D&AD Global Awards for its “War Orphans - Somalia, Iraq, Chechnya” posters. Designed for Misereor Charity, the posters are visually commanding, demanding your imagination to stretch beyond the painted steel and cement and visualize the fractured lives of those in war torn areas.

Somalia:

Iraq:

Chechnya :

In this day and age, the one characteristic consistently lacking in advertising is the message. Or maybe it's not so much that the message is lacking, but the fact that contemporary advertising never fails to distort. Although in this instance the work is (unfortunately) beautiful, these posters are not just intended to attract the eye. It, instead, travels beyond the aesthetic, concentrating the message and conveying an uncensored emotion: not to buy a Coke because you're hip and young, or drive a truck because "This is our country," but to feel that there is not a difference between a bullet hole in a painted picture and a bullet hole in a person. The bone becomes the cement.

How often do you feel when you watch television? How do you usually feel when the marketing execs tell you how you're feeling?

If you felt anything, I encourage you to check out Misereor's work.

From their website:

MISEREOR was founded in 1958 as an agency "against hunger and disease in the world". In its capacity as the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Germany, it offers to cooperate in a spirit of partnership with all people of goodwill to promote development, fight worldwide poverty, liberate people from injustice, exercise solidarity with the poor and the persecuted, and help create "One World".

To fight the causes of hardship and misery as manifested chiefly in countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America in the forms of hunger, disease, poverty and other forms of human suffering...-

Thus enabling the people affected to lead a life of human dignity, and to promote justice, freedom, reconciliation and peace in the world.

The assistance we provide is designed to stimulate and support self-help and pave the way for sustainable improvement in the living conditions of the poor.

*I am not, in any way, endorsing this horrible commercial. I do, however, endorse the use of dark liquors.