NSPCC TELEVISION ADVERT

[GORGEOUSX]

in thinking that the NSPCC has an awful lot of money to spend on advertising.

I hate the nationwide tv advert they run frequently, and fail to see how my giving £2 is going to stop the scum of the earth from beathing their kids to death. Also DD2 finds it very, very sad and doesn't like to see the child actors portraying these pitiful situations.

I'm sure that if giving £2 was to stop these evil bastards, nigh on everybody would give that and more!

but this isn't unique to the nspcc is it? All these emotive begging adverts/literature are everywhere. are Off the top of my head I can think of:

nspcc
The red cross (who incidentally came knocking at my door and became very agressive when I said I wasn't going to fill in a dd for them and accused me of not caring about people in the 3rd world).
Save the children.
Sight savers.
Oxfam.
Dogs trust "sponsor a dog and he will write to you and send you cards." well surely if he's that literate he can go out and earn his own keep
wwf "sponsor a tiger/penguin/polar bear/

demented If you'd read my posts you would know that I agreed with you with regards to childline.

Penelope I was referring to the pockets of the employees, some of whom receive high salaries, and I'm not convinced that you need to pay such high salaries to attract people who can best do the job.

I also agree re: childline and think that the nspcc helpline is a good idea but I absolutely wont support their paranoia inducing " we are watching you" propoganda advertising, which if I am not much mistaken are created with massive media agencies trained entirely in generating response - not protecting vulnerable children.

Advertising brings in a lot of donations which outweigh the costs of the advert.

The adverts also increase awareness, they are not just there to increase revenue but can only show an abused child that their life is not normal.

An abused child often believes that what happens in their homes is normal, their abusers deny them access to other peoples homes and refuse to let them have freinds over, so no one has a chance to tell them that their lives are not the same as everyone elses, they are kept isolated apart from school. They are also threatened in order to keep their mouths shut.

These adverts can help to show these children that the lives they lead are not normal and that there is someone there that can help them. You might feel that you child does not need to know but there is a child somewhere that needs to see that advert so they feel not so alone and can begin to build up the courage to talk to someone.

Gorgeousx - If you are very good at your job. you love your job and are in tune with the ethos of a specific charity and would like to work for them.

BUT, you have a mortgage and bills to pay.

Do you take the job at X which pays £40k or the job at the charity which pays a third of that salary?

there are very few who would take the charity job.

However if they are able to offer say £35k they are still able to entice those who are good at their job to work for them yet still "save" money.

Unfortunately Sw's really aren't saintly who work purely for the love of the job. we have bills to pay too

Slightly mad I actually agree with you on that but it has also engendered a culture of slight hysteria in this country. There is a very real difference between a perpetually scruffy child and a perpetually dirty one for instance but the amount of threads I see on mn with stupid comments like "the childs hair clearly hadnt been brushed that morning shall I call ss" is terrifying and ever since I saw that ad I really feel that they crossed a line into wanting us all to become suspicious of everyone we see which is worrying for an agency with so much money and so many government connections. I dont doubt that at its heart it genuinly cares about children who are being hurt but I think less awareness raising and more action would get my pocket moving an awful lot quicker. Show me an ad for what they actually DO (i.e. the childline thing) and I would be much mroe willing to consider them less a cynical money making machine and more a genuinly caring charity determined to improve childrens lives.

YY prettyfly1 - the NSPCC should actually have an advert telling us what it does. "Miles is a quiet baby" is upsetting but unless the NSPCC put CCTV into everyones homes how do they ever learn about Miles?

slightlytmad I take your point. It is worth my DD seeing this if an abused child will see that it's not supposed to be that way.

exactly - nine times out of ten they get calls about NON quiet babies (my neighbours kid wont stop crying - clearly the woman is abusing it, it cant possibly have colic) and NOONE is likely to call about a quiet kid (there you are, something for all you parents of children who DONT cry a lot to get paranoid about - what are you all doing to em???eh? eh?).

I would love to see an advert saying:

in 2010 NSPCC set up twenty seven parenting support groups for parents of children with behavioural difficulties, sponsored fifty womens aid shelters and 14 programmes aimed at educating children re: appropriate ways to use anger (all of this is entirely made up) which would make a real difference to kids lives long term then the scaremongering balls. Hate it.

Penelopetits I'm not suggesting that people work for nothing; what I'm saying is that the NSPCC can still employ people with lower salaries - especially in this financial climate where there are many, many people who would work for a lower salary. Of course if you can get a higher salary, then you would go for it, but I'm sure NSPCC could fill all their posts with great people on lesser salaries.

Unfortunately charity is big business.

What does YY mean?

What I really don't understand... and if anybody can give me some enlightenment I'd be grateful..

There are very many abused children in this country who would do better away from their parents than with them, right? Why then, if there is such a demand for rehoming, do people who want to foster and adopt made to jump so very many hoops? Their health is delved into with a fine toothcomb - lifestyle choices, cigarettes, alcohol, medical conditions, overweight, etc.

It makes no sense to me that some of these children can't go to the families who desperately want to foster/adopt a child. I know that SS don't want to see a 'frying pan and fire' scenario but Baby P, Victoria Climbie, this latest baby burned by the fire... they would have had a better chance with the very worst foster parent. I just don't get it.

Demented Just want to add that I think you do a great job - I didn't realise there weren't enough people to answer calls; now that I know I will make enquiries myself to volounteer.

i know someone who worked on the nspcc ad and alot of them volunteered their time for free

What really gets me about these adverts is that there are so many of them for so many different charities. They all seem to say just £x per week/month and lay on a massive guilt trip. I know they need to fund raise but I literally have no spare money and it gets me down as these adverts make me feel as though it is my fault things are they way they are described in the advert.

I work for Childline, not as a counsellor-I visit schools and tell up to 15,000 children a year about Childline.
I Do not get paid a huge salary-less than £14,000 a year.
I know I do a valuable job from feedback from head teachers and staff, and get a number of disclosures each year from children.

YANBU. I would never give money to a charity that clearly spends so much on advertising

FFS! They wouldn't do it if it didn't make financial sense! There's not just some dumbass sitting in a tower on a pile of donated money, laughing at how much they can manage to "waste" on TV campaigns.

Their advertising campaigns don't bother me. Their door to door 'sales people' do though. I was bullied (and it was bullying) with my newborn DD in my arms, into setting up a DD for £12, which started at £2 p/m. He went on and on, showing my pictures of abused children and reading passages about abuse until I upped it to £12 just to get him to fuck off. I closed the door and burst into tears.

Red Cross stopped DH the other day in town and used similar aggressive tactics.

I know most of them are fine and are volunteering for no or little pay, but they would receive more donations if they weren't so bloody aggressive.

I agree that frontline workers such as childlinechick don't get big salaries, I worked for a charity years ago & got less than the NHS paid me. But the big execs did seem to get a lot of money & it did feel wrong that normal working class people were donating what was a lot of money to them for execs to be paid so much. In the charity I worked for it did seem disproportionate to what was actually going to the recipients.

I don't get the impression that the door to door people are volunteers anymore, are they on some sort of commission?

thornykate I agree entirely with your post. Some of the door-to-door ones are volunteers, but I do wonder if some are paid because they are very ..... enthusiastic....

I think the door to door ones are paid -and I don't like them or chiggers or being rung up to increase my Dd!
But I do see the impact Childline makes to many children's lives-children who aren't being sexually abused by Uncle Jack or beaten with a stick-just children who are very unhappy. Worried about bullying, parents separating, their dog's died, having no friends.....
That's why I work for them, because I know I'm valued and can make a difference.

It's the maniputlation with these ads I don't like, it's like you are a uncaring tightwad if you don't give just two pounds per month to stop these children being beaten. In my house every penny is accountable and I feel really guilty every time I see these ads , and how do you prioritise charities , there is cancer research , donkeys RSPCA charities for developing countries , blind children that adds up to quite a lot for families who don't have much and it's just the tip of the iceberg , and do they need to spend so much on advertising on tv when everyone and their dog are on social network sites where they can post for free?

Yes, agree. The British Public are having the piss taken out of them, because The British Public care.

mamadiva, don't know about anything else but the NSPCC do run ChildLine in Scotland [another ChildLine counsellor here] - I know of three bases off the top of my head. So they definitely do some work there.