What The FARC?

In 2011, the advertisement above was part of a much-lauded and Grand Prix winning campaign The agency declared that

The powerful, timely and well-located messaging encouraged 331 FARC guerrillas to demobilise and re-enter society—a 30% uplift on the previous year. In challenging circumstances, strategic planning drew together powerful insights to create a core, successful, thought – taking the spirit of Christmas to guerrilla strongholds.

The judges swooned and there were awards all round.

Yesterday, the FARC rebels ended their unilaterally-declared 2012 Christmas ceasefire with a series of attacks across Colombia. This marked a significant increase on the 52 that had occurred during the ceasefire.

 It would be wrong to wonder how many of the rebels had returned from spending Christmas with their families, but it ccertainly reminds us that "effectiveness" is a very odd concept and that the industry can be a little arrogant. Meanwhile,  people die.