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40oz

ASPCA ads

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For any of those who aren't familiar, the ASPCA is a local animal shelter that rescues animals from abusive or neglectful owners and puts them up for adoption to better owners. When they rescue more animals than they can contain, they make ads like this on TV to guilt you into taking care of formerly abused animals.

My girlfriend is a dog-lover and already has a hyperactive dog named penny that she adopted from a shelter even though shes living with her grandmother who can't stand dogs (this was before she had these ads thrown in her face though) and she can't bare to watch these commercials on TV without tearing up. Everytime were watching TV together and this commercial blindsides us, she goes "CHANGE IT CHANGE IT" and we have to scramble to find the remote because it's simply too heartbreaking for her. I especially find it annoying that it completely disrupts the flow of usual TV ads that are usuallu factual and humorous and screaming "BUY THIS BUY THAT" all the time, and this fucker comes along trying to make me feel like a piece of shit for not running an animal farm. I already own three cats and I'm pretty sure we spend more money on them than I do on myself.

These ads pop up out of nowhere on almost any channel and I'm surprised this kind of advertising hasn't gotten it off the air by now. I just saw one again today in between commercial inteludes of the movie Caddyshack. What the fuck?

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Most charity ads piss me off by pulling the guilt card, especially the dog ones. I dislike dogs. (Not hate, just dislike. They have never appealed to me is all.)

Even worse is when these ads skip the guilt part and go straight to a full-on personal attack. One of them I saw recently was for families in Africa living in poverty, and the caption was "IGNORE THEM?". Geez, I'm not ignoring them. I know they have horrendous living conditions over there and it's a terrible state of affairs, but what if I genuinely can't afford to help?

It's a spiteful, antagonizing approach to appeal and I wish it would stop. It kind of undermines the charity/appeal group's prestige as a "good cause". Surely we shouldn't feel the need to bully people into donating to charity?! :S

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The RSPCA do just the same with British TV. Along with a plethora of other charities who also feel the need to guilt trip me into giving money to something.

I just ignore them when they come on. I don't like being told I'm a heartless, miserly cunt whenever I'm not donating to something. Not that I watch TV that much these days.

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I figure the "charities" that put these out and employ these tactics are probably run by the most despicable kinds of crooks and thugs who are pocketing a lot of the money for themselves.

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It's interesting how these adverts do that; I don't mean because of the tactics but there are other animal rescue ones which do it gracefully. For instance, I was running to class and I saw a woman handing out pamphlets. She asked me something which I ignored and replied with "I'm running late." I got past her and then I heard her asking "Help save animals?" to someone else. I quickly turned around and went back to her, took one, and said I didn't hear what it was for. Don't remember where the pamphlet is exactly (somewhere in my mess of a room) but they didn't use guilt tactics. In fact, they kept emphasizing that anyone can help (even people who wanted to eat meat) and it didn't need to be a serious commitment.

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I find these ads rather annoying, but that's about all I feel when they come on. I kind of feel sad for the animals, but then at the same time I don't care. These animals aren't my problem, and it's not my problem all of those African countries are such giant mess piles. Sure I wouldn't mind helping, but as stated before it's not like I really have the resources.

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Quasar said:

I figure the "charities" that put these out and employ these tactics are probably run by the most despicable kinds of crooks and thugs who are pocketing a lot of the money for themselves.

Unfortunately, guilt-trip fundraising appears to be regarded as industry best practice in Australia, with reputable charities that I've supported in the past going so far as to include sob stories in personal correspondence. I don't like guilt-tripping so that tactic is actually working against them by making me feel less inclined to donate.

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I donate to, and help out with, a number of charities. If I see one of these guilt-trip adverts, because I'm pig-headed, I cross the charity off my list (if they were ever on it) - at least for a while.

I find it a low and unwelcome trick. I guess you could argue "what is a little emotional discomfort for you [me] when these people/animals are at death's door" and, I suppose, that's a reasonable point. It may also be that such advertising works. However, I object to an attempt to guilt-trip me into giving so I ensure that, for me at least, it has the opposite effect.

Petty? Bloody minded? Possibly. That's how I roll. :P

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I do my bit by donating money and we have 5 dogs, 5 cats that were mostly picked up off the streets or from shelters. So yeah, I'm not interested in guilt trip ads like this that assume everyone is some kind of uncaring asshole that needs to be cattle prodded in the right direction.

Also, lol @ 1:40.

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DeathevokatioN said:

Also, lol @ 1:40.


Hahahaha oops that wasnt supposed to happen. I came across the ad and recognized it from TV right away, obviously didnt watch it all the way through. (didnt think i needed to)

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