Barnardo's Impact On Children

There has been a shock advertisement in Britain about a baby with a cockroach coming out of his mouth to spread awareness of poverty that is taking place in the U.K. This ad was thoughtfully planned by an organization called Barnardo’s. Barnardo’s is an organization that focuses on children who live in the U.K. In the commercial of the baby, Barnardo’s stated that there is a certain amount of children in the U.K who are living in poverty, but they felt that statics were not enough and were not getting attention to the audience in a way Barnardo’s had in mind. According to an article, “Limited Shock Value” by Lisa Harker, mentions that:
“The Barnardo’s campaign comes up against a problem that all ant-poverty organizations face. People are not

But they don’t help answer the question, “if one in three children live in poverty in Britain, where are they all?” (Harker).
The U.K is known to be one of the wealthiest and most beautiful countries in the world, so poverty does not come to mind. Harker also mentions, “Anti-poverty campaigners face the challenge of opening our eyes to the very real difficulties that millions face just getting by in modern Britain. This does not make for comforting viewing. Hence, such images rarely find their way on to our TV screens. Nor do those who experience hardship want to be labelled as poor”

Some people take offence that there are advertisements that are making their country look bad just so that they can raise awareness of the situation. Some of them work all day to support their family and when they are being exploited to the media in a way that appears that the family cannot take care of their own family, it can bring insecurities since they are being labeled as poor in a country like Britain. No hard working family should be exploited like. Yes, there is a message that should be said, but there must be a different approach in trying to get people’s attention. In the article, “The Barnardo’s Babies: Performativity, Shame and the Photograph,” by Susan Ash, talks about how Barnardo’s tried to air on television and ad that involves a baby and injecting himself with heroine, “U.K. charity released an advertisement featuring a baby in a dark, squalid setting, preparing to inject heroin: The campaign sought to solicit empathy by graphically staging the outcome for children born into poverty, in this case the future, Baby Mary is three minutes old… Poverty is waiting to crush Mary’s hope and ambition and is likely to lead her to a future of drug abuse…” (Ash). The