Attention Grabbing

Amnesty International in Switzerland have just launched a new ad campaign created by Walker Werbeagentur with the tag line:

"It's not happening here but it's happening now."

Generally, when confronted with images of suffering and violence, the senses just seem to shut down now. We've seen similar images too many times before and generally they're too hard to really identify with. The use of these transparent billboards, however, seems frighteningly effective. The fact that the hooded, tortured Iraqi man craddling his child, who looks either wounded or dead, would appear to be sitting on the pavement next to you would, I imagine, make it very difficult to distance yourself from.