VCCP Creates Detention Ad for ICRC - August 2006

The International Committee of the Red Cross has created a new TV spot focusing on ill treatment of prisoners.

Called "Abuse Grows Hatred," the animated film dramatises the point that the ill-treatment of prisoners breeds hatred within the families, communities and countries of the imprisoned.

The film mimics the instructional tone of gardening programmes. As you watch the simple imagery, a wise age-old voice tells you? "This is how you grow hatred" then it goes on to say "First you must take your enemies and imprison them without fair trial." We see prisoners thrown into underground cells.

"Isolate them from their families. Mix in inhumane conditions and feed with abuse." We see roots beginning to grow from the cells. "Leave to take root and spread and soon hatred will be growing everywhere." The malevolent growth rises eerily through the ground and begins to spread across the surface.

The commercial was written by Shaun McIlrath and art directed by Andy Taylor at VCCP and is part of a broader campaign which will include print ambient and viral messaging. The film is on the ICRC website (www.icrc.org ) and is being offered to TV channels internationally.

Treating prisoners humanely is a right guaranteed under International Humanitarian Law.

Hannah Fitz-Gerald, the account director at VCCP said, "The aim of the detention ad is to encourage people to think about the importance of protecting the life and dignity of people who are detained."

This is the first in a series of advertising initiatives to come from the ICRC, covering a range of humanitarian issues.