Comments

I agree the ad does a very good job of distilling the essence of the goals into a single sentence (or, at least, it does a great job of distilling a particular interpretation of the goals). But there's at least one glaring inaccuracy. No one has a plan: the Goals are desired targets; but we don't have a plan for meeting them (which is a good thing given we know comparatively little about the development process).

"The UN has launched a plan to fight poverty, injustice and climate change." What could be more direct? Succinctly captures the key messages, reinforces the logo and presents the iconic UN chamber as the world's meeting place. Anthropomorphising animals and linking them to national archetypes is a trope familiar to all ages. I think its brilliant.

I am Walid Tamim, I used to work for ABC Australia for more then 7 years and now I have established a TV channel exclusive for children and teenagers in Afghanistan. I am sharing the brief note and would be pleased to be forwarded to the relevant department/person for expansion of this TV network across the country. Currently we are in Kabul and Mazar e Sharif: Aria TV in Brief: Afghanistan, for the first time in its history, has the opportunity to practice modern democracy. In lessons learned from developed countries, multi-media has been an important source of knowledge and education for the masses. The role of media in promoting democracy, educating people about their civic rights, encouraging people to participate in politics and civics, is always recognized. This has been experienced in Afghanistan in last ten years. Therefore, it is critical, at this point of Afghanistan’s history, to educate society, especially the young generation, about the positive changes democracy can have on society using the experiences of other countries. ARIA TV was launched as a channel exclusively for children and teenagers to educate them about their civic rights and to do a sort of behavior change. The target audience is preschoolers, school students, and out of school children. The principle of this channel is “Education through Entertainment.” ARIA TV focuses on democracy promotion and aims at the children and teenagers as a hope for the future. The TV programming is designed to achieve this as a main aim. (Visit: www.aria.af) Objectives of ARIA TV are: • Teach civic responsibilities; • Teach social responsibilities (how contributing to keeping their communities clean, an education, respecting their parents and elders all make for a better society); • Teach the importance of a peaceful, democratic, and modern society; • Teach the dangers of terrorism and extremism; • Teach the danger of drugs; • Teach that their effective contribution and engagement to their communities can bring change to the lives of everyone; • To teach children’s rights, women’s rights, right to education, right to a peaceful life, and so on; • To change children and teenagers to a productive and better citizens; and • To encourage school attendance Best, Dr. Walid Tamim (MD, PgD in Economics) President-Aria TV Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan, Str. 15, Main Rd, House No. 835 Kabul-Afghanistan Cell: +93 7 96700898 (Afghanistan) Email: walid.tamim@aria.af Website: www.aria.af

And who's the Llama meant to be?

Excellent review. The question remaining is: how is it possible that this farcical process and outcomes were allowed to take place? And then a second question: how do we reform the UN/INGO/development system to stop this sort of thing happening?

I read the Easterly piece not knowing who Easterly is (it is assumed that readers of this blog are part of the aid/development industry and are familiar with him: his identity is not explained to readers). I read the piece because I have indeed been 'slightly nauseous' this week on reading the hullaballoo about the SDG goals, as Ashlee indicates. For the life of me I cannot believe the hype generated by a statement of 2030 goals that is, as far as I can see, unlikely to make the slightest bit of difference to sum total of global poverty, disadvantage, discrimination and fear anytime soon. This is utopianism. Wild utopianism, given credibility by an assembly of world governments who presumably felt obliged to concur with the goal of ending world poverty by 2030. Did anyone suggest it might be done by 2025? Or 2040? That's not the point, of course. It's the intent, not the detail that matters. Which is why, presumably, I have read statements from some governments and civil society organisations suggesting that these goals might be difficult to budget for, and not easy to implement. Indeed. Implementation and budgeting for utopian goals are not easy to do.

Thanks Terence. Watching it again, my impression is the same: I like it. The ad highlights the fact that every state agreed, and every state is expected to work towards the goals in some shape or form, not just developing countries: everyone, together. It is also great to see the effort kicked-off so quickly, unlike the MDGs where it took about five years before the promotional programme really got going. The aim was to promote the SDGs to as many people as possible within seven days (7 billion people, even) - a good idea, and one that indicates the UN is going to work hard to 'sell' these goals. For sure, there are major issues, as Philippe Krause from Team Chimera pointed out. But the realities on the ground should not prevent aspiration, and that's what the SDGs are more than anything. I think the ad captures this well. Besides, who can resist Liam Neeson?

Hmmm... I think it's actually an ad for the UN more than the SDGs. Shows countries coming together for good (presented generically as global goals). It doesn't really say much about the SDGs themselves (as others have noted) but it presents the UN in a fun, light but meaningful way. It's not going to make anyone care more about the SDGs but might help reset the image of the UN a touch among some people. But how does Norway get the moose? What about Canada? I am offended.

Easterly writes: "“A surge in foreign aid had been at the heart of the MDGs, but the SDGs just change the subject as fast as possible…" But in the SDGs (survived to final version I think): "17.2 Developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of ODA/GNI to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries; ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries" https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics The MDGs had no point seven target. So it would seem that aid has done better in the SDGs?

Yeah - I'm inclined to think a real person (at least for audiences not going to see kid's films) would have been better.

From a comms point of view, I just wonder who they are actually trying to communicate to with this ad. It doesn't do anything to explain what the goals are or their 'plan' is (I think it's pretty misleading to call the SDGs a plan! More like a wishlist...). Are they trying to talk to adults or children? For children, the message seems off, and for adults, the format seems off. And what do they want them to do? There is no strong call to action beyond remembering to visit a website, or to download an app (which I downloaded, but it just seems to want me to take a '360 degree' selfie which sounds terrifying). There's no real information provided -- just the kind of nice but sort of hollow words that the UN often gets pilloried for. For a cinema ad, where you have a fairly captive/undistracted audience compared to other broadcast media, I reckon they should have just used Malala or one of the other celebrities they trotted out over the weekend. A real, unanimated person talking and explaining the goals, or why they think the goals are a good thing, might not have been 'innovative' but it would surely have been more convincing.

I immediately thought Madagascar and Pixar [and forgot to turn the sound on first]. Poor optics, in my view.