In his recent blogpost, Duncan Green (Oxfam, From Poverty to Power) posed a question about the video below – “Hmm, what do you think of this ad? Clever and effective, or politically dodgy to ridicule the first world and say ‘the only real problems are those of poor people’?”
I just thought I would air my views… To be honest I love it!
I do think its hard sometimes to compare different people’s problems in entirely different contexts, and of course even in the most developed countries there are still legitimate problems – personal, family, financial, work and even existential problems that – while they may not be as life-threatening as lack of water, can seem as all-encompassing to the people affected.
However, this ad cleverly avoided drawing comparison to any of these major first world problems and instead draws out the day-to-day-trivia that we tend to spend our time complaining about – the problems that there is simply no way to juxtapose against hunger, thirst, lack of basic amenities etc.
It also made me chuckle, always a good alternative to just tugging at the heart strings which people seem to have become immune to!
Well done I say, more of the same! 🙂
#FirstWorldProblems
Matt Haikin 