5 responses to “‘No Sale’ Oxfam Video”

1. Peter Muffett says:

   April 23, 2013 at 1:51 am

   Isn’t that the new pop promo film for the re-release of an old Coldplay single……..ahem, oh……..it’s not………it’s a serious subject……..a serious message………..it must have been done gratis though…….surely?

   A classic example of film makers who don’t speak fluent fundraising or fluent hand-raising……..as you say, a missed opportunity……..

2. madison says:

   April 23, 2013 at 8:10 am

   Lordy, now we have to put up with product placements in non-profits ads instead of just brazenly thrown into our TTV shows and movies? Ugh. Nice placement for Coldplay there. The message, the real purpose of this vide, however, is lost.

   First of all, if you made it through five minutes, you’re going to be the extreme exception, Tom. Most people will not watch this beyond the first two minutes, especially since what’s happening in the video doesn’t change – the entire thing is people “living” outdoors. That never a changes. The “story” is incomplete.

   There are a lot of other problems with it. It seems to me they are/were trying to reach a different (new?) constituency/target. Not a bod goal but I think they miss the mark. (Or maybe I’m not in the targeted new constituency group’s age bracket). I get not wanting to go maudlin and heavy with despairing imagery and hard emotional manipulation. I get that. But this is too light, IMO. As you said, it’s young people having fun and being creative outdoors (while attempting to illustrate how much it would suck to be displaced by a land grab).

   I think there are so many more interesting ways to have done this. Especially if you’re determined to burn through five (really,four) minutes of the viewer’s time.

   Oh well.

3. Casey says:

   April 23, 2013 at 9:16 am

   I had never heard of Land grabs before and I still dont know what they are. Cute idea but the message was most certainly lost. I also couldnt keep my attention and stopped watching at about 3 and a half minutes. There is alot of room for improvement here. What a shame because it seems like a good amount of work went into this. Also apparently there is some celebrity in there named Ed Sheeran, dont know who that is 🙁

4. Keri Kae says:

   April 23, 2013 at 1:10 pm

   I’m torn on this one… Maybe I’m the only one, but I was affected by the video. I kept thinking to myself, “Gosh, that could be me without a home, without privacy or even a place to brush my teeth had I not been born when and where I was born.” But it could just be me. Also, I’m familiar with GROW campaign, so this may have something to do with it.

   Sure, it could have been shorter or more impact-oriented, but it’s probably worth noting that fundraising or informing donors weren’t the aims of the video.

   According to the press release, this is the final product of an advocacy campaign. The goal was to create a sort of “cinematic petition.” The film was strategically released before the World Bank’s spring meetings last week, I suspect in hopes that the hashtag #nomorelandgrabs would attract attention in the media and at the meetings.

   It looks like they set out to collect as much usable footage as possible from anyone who might be interested in the issue — more entries = more powerful advocacy.

   Given the goal (and the number of submissions!), I’d venture to say that they probably did better than we’re giving them credit for….

   http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/pressroom/pressrelease/2013-04-15/coldplay-and-oxfam-launch-crowdsourced-video-demand-end-landgrabs, video source: http://oxfamontour.org/coldplay/inmyplacefilm/

5. Marion says:

   April 25, 2013 at 9:13 am

   I wonder what you would say about this online video then… 🙂 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpBbOY2amnE