To think the NSPCC have made a slightly bizarre choice of song for their new ad campaign?

[Snaf]

The one with the butterflies?

It's called 'Jenny Again' by Tunng, and it's about a bloke who literally gets away with murder. I know it's not exactly obvious in the ad, but a bit strange given the work of the NSPCC, non?

Full lyrics are:

Throw the knife into the stream
Run away across the fields
Leave me lying where I fell
Rivers running out of me
Meet my Jenny in the lane
Take a car and run away
Get as far as you can get
Before the new day

Your heart beats quick and strong
Your mind pores over it all
Don't worry because no one saw me fall

Sit inside a little chef
Look around but not at her
See my kisses on her lips
See my fingers in her hair
Think of this against your will
See the knife edge slipping in
See the questions in my eyes
As I ask them

I went so quick it makes you shudder that I'm gone
Are we so brittle has your soul turned into stone
And though you loved me I'm not Jenny in the night
Some decisions don't thread back to being right

Your head blurs quickly tonight
Your edges diffuse in the light
Don't tell me that your throat is getting tight

Change your name and find a job
Marry Jenny in the spring
Buy a dog and call him Pete
Push the children on the swings
Think about me now and then
Try to find a peaceful space
Count the days as they go by
Count the lines upon your face

Your heart beats quick and strong
Your mind pores over it all
Don't worry because no one saw me fall

I saw the ad last night, thought 'Oh I love this song', then 'Er, hang on...' Or am I just not getting the ever-so-subtle nuances here?

what was the baby names book thing Enid?
I work in advertising, but not in the Uk btw..

It was like a fake baby name book...

A is for Adam. Adam was XYZ (suffered some appaling treatment at the hands of his family)

B is for Beth. Beth was ditto adam. etc.

It was all real cases, very disturbing stuff.

Yeah, I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who knows exactly what the NSPCC spends its money on.

what a disgraceful waste of money.
Sounds very tasteless.
Some agency will have been paid a fortune for that tosh, None of them mothers I'll bet.
Am actually a fan of the more hard hitting type of telly advert.
The Cancer research one got me every time

Don't know the song, but the lyrics are really eerie, good eerie that is. Not particularly appropriate for a NSPCC advert though. Very odd.

OMG Marmeduke what a awful thing to get through the post. They should be ashamed of themselves for making a fake baby name book. We have all bought these books in the past and to make a mock version is just vile.

Thanks Aniyan, it was this bit that confused me though:

'And though you loved me I'm not Jenny in the night'

weirdy weirdy song!

yes, Pushpinia, that bit confuses me too - maybe they were best friends?? Maybe killer was secretly in love with victim and killed hin
m then ran off with Jenny - so was in the closet as well as a murderer??? Maybe I'm making far too many assumptions about the genders of the characters???? I like songs that make you think

Add me to the list of people not a fan of NSPCC. They don't actually do anything different from SS. A lot of charities nowadays (showing my age now) don't want to get their hands dirty. It all seems to be fund raising to spend on fancy marketing campaigns and wages.

I stopped donating to NSPCC because of the above reasons- they spread fear, imply that child abuse is widely spread and a common problem, and seem to do nothing useful in helping vunerable children. It's main focus seem to be in providing salaries for its employees.

At last, a thread of people who are not fans of the NSPCC. I am sure that they do all sorts of fantastic work, but the publicity work that they do really gets my goat. I mean, for example, spending millions on the "Cruelty to children must stop. Full stop" campaign. Does anyone actually think that a child abuser looks at a poster and says, you know, I have just realised after looking at that bus stop poster that I shouldn't be cruel to a child.

So, if not, who is the poster aimed at?

I once worked at an organisation which did at £250k piece of market research for the NSPCC. It kind of puts it in perspective, all those kids saving their £1 a week or whatever to give the NSPCC and then they go and squander it on a mahoosive survey to use for marketing purposes.

Save the Children I saw from the inside though, and that was a really sensible and frugal charity. Sure someone will come along to contradict me in a minute.

I once worked in a hotel where a prominent charity (not NSPCC) booked the entire hotel for the week for an all expenses paid knees up for its top staff. I have been weary of donating money ever since. I tend to donate to local charities that I have seen their good work at first hand.

What also sticks in my craw is that people think that by ringing the NSPCC helpline to report concerns that the NSPCC are going to do something special with it.

They don't, they just call the local social services department and half the time they haven't taken all the important information.

I really dislike the NSPCC, when other charities do so much more. NCH and Barnados actually run more services for children.

What's the name of that London inner city kids charity that Damian Hirst just gave £1m to? Now THAT's a good action taking charity.

Barnado's are also brilliant. Shelter are great too. Very active and on the ground.

I used to work in one of the agencies making money off developing campaigns for charities btw. The agency did make a lot of money but they also helped to raise a lot more money than the charities would otherwise have received. IYSWIM

Kids Company was the charity Hirst donated to. They are certainly very hands on.
Am rethinking my regular donation to the NSPCC in the light of this thread. Might divert the funds to Save the Children instead.

Childline, which is a very valuable service and much used by looked after children and other vulnerable children was fairly recently taken overby NSPCC (just over two years ago I think). Childline staff have been treated badly, terms and conditions mucked about with etc and they all feel that NSPCC don't 'get' the work they do. I am not a fan of the NSPCC who are as a previous poster said funding hogs, but am a huge fan of Childline.

the nspcc do the following;

run 8 young peoples centres in the uk with counsellors on hand for yong people to talk to.

run projects for children who are victims of domestic violence situations.

they are also the only charity with the statutory power to undertake child abuse investigations and can be called upon by the police and local authorities to assist them.

they run the national child protection helpline.

they work helping children prepare for giving evidence in court and support them through it.

they have 34 therapeutic and treatment teams.

they run the there4me website which has;

delivered over 100,000 individual 1-2-1 sessions
replied to over 40,000 Private In Box emails from young people
replied to over 22,000 Ask Sam letters from young people.

they also do a school outreach programme.i know they have been helpful to our school when setting up a playground pals scheme.

Interesting TMMJ. They really ought to say what they do in their fundraising letters, though, rather than just detailing abuse and tragedy.

I asked NSPCC to take me off their mailing list after getting that baby names book (which I suspect was actually targetted at mums with babies/young children), but I still see their circulars and inserts in magazines and they are so overwhelmingly negative. I much prefer to give to charities which present a positive picture of the work they are doing and how it makes a difference.

yes it was definitely targetted at mums with young children

I had never heard from the nspcc before - suddenlty dd3 was 3 months old and WHAM

they deny it of course

TMMJ, are the NSPCC truly UK wide? I have a vague memory that the actual services they provide are concentrated in England.

I would contribute to them if they campaigned like other charities "this year we helped X number of children...."

I, and several of my colleagues, are very wary of the work of the NSPCC, after observing/being involved in a case one of their social workers was also involved in. I can't go into details, but we were all quite perturbed by the case.

I also realise this is only one worker, on one case, but it was really quite bizarre.

Haven't seen the ad in question, but I dislike the heavyhandedness of the ads generally - I am aware of the horrendous things people do to children through work, I do not need to see it on the tv through their ads.

They make their employees miserable!

This is how they spend their money www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=216401&SubsidiaryNumber=0

Zombie thread de-luxe with bells on!