What is child labour? Many of us will say it’s a cruel and inhuman act but what if it was actually useful. The advertisement “Support child labour” directed by Rob Martin Murphy advances the argument that child labour is beneficial and parents should encourage and support this campaign. The advertisement uses an apologetic and serious tone that triggers the guilt in parents to convince them that enlisting their children into the work force is a justifiable act. This advertisement appeared on the ABC’s program “The Gruen Transfer” where two of the advertising industry's finest agencies are pitted against each other and challenged with “selling the unsellable”.
The advertisement uses an anecdote to persuade the audience using a realistic story. In the beginning Raj is introduced to the audience while the camera is slowly panning upwards to reveal his appearance. Raj’s appearance is portrayed as a weak Napoleon factory worker with a skinny, bone bearing body and dry, pale lips. Raj looks like he is in need of food and sleep urgently. Having knowledge that Nepal is one of the poorest nations in the world; the audience will empathize towards the boy, being “only ten years old” trying to survive his abysmal daily life. As stated by the advertisement, the pitiful boy works for “12 hours straight” alongside “thousands of other children”. When a statistic like this is given to the audience they will tend to believe that Raj really exists and is suffering, again playing on their emotions. The lighting in Raj’s scene is gloomy visually giving the message that the factory is an unpleasant environment to work in. The lady’s sincere tone of voice along with the depressing, soft piano music makes the viewer feel that they are at fault that the poor, innocent child is working. The viewer will feel heavy hearted that they can’t do anything about the situation.
After Raj’s scene, Hugo is shown lazing around on a comfy couch with a Nintendo DS, eating a sandwich while chewing with his mouth open. This suggests that Hugo is an unmannered boy that no parent wants to keep at home so the simplest way to solve this is to make Hugo go to work. Hugo is also described as a “lazy little shit” by the voice over. (saying out loud what the audience may be thinking) Hugo’s colourful striped shirt is contrasted with Raj’s one coloured brown shirt showing the status of both the children, how one is treated like gold and the other a piece of rubbish. When Hugo is juxtaposed with Raj, the audience is apathetic about Hugo because in their eyes all they can see is Raj.
(The advertisement also has a rhetorical question)
The advertisement also employs a memorable slogan at the end, “a little bit of work won’t hurt them”. This slogan is not only catchy but also reasonable telling parents bluntly that if their child does a little bit of work they won’t die but it will lower the amount of children becoming obsessed in Australia. This is evident through the portrayal of Hugo, the typical young, obsessed boy. As all Australians should know, Australia is facing an obesity crisis so at all costs Australians must try to prevent it by the use of child labour. The slogan seeks to change the minds of indecisive and apprehensive parents who are likely to object for the health and safety of their children. The way in which the slogan suggests that child labour is beneficial entices the audience to support and believe them.
To conclude, “Support child labour”, is likely to be a successful campaign in persuading Australian audiences to use child labour as a tactic to stop the obesity crisis in Australia and help the Napoleon children. The use of an anecdote and statistics is a clever way to appeal emotions of sympathy and empathy. It seems only reasonable and sensible that lazy child should do “a little bit of work” in place of a suffering Napoleon child.