The Ephemerist

On their year-long Anniversary Tour of Europe, the Smurfs took over Liège today.  And even though that’s not far from where I live, the weather was too bad to make the trip, and besides, I had work to do.

We’d bought our Smurfs from Unicef anyhow, as that is the main purpose of this campaign : raising awareness (and money) for that cause.  Which brings me to something that has been on my mind since this campaign started.  All those lowlives who are selling these charity smurfs on Ebay for $ 50 or more, you should be ashamed of yourselves for more than one reason :

1. Chances are you grabbed handfuls of Smurfs from the street in whatever city you live in, leaving nothing for the children who were meant to find them,
2. You’re trying to make money from something that you didn’t pay zip for yourself
3. The amount of money you ask is totally outrageous, as Unicef sells the same figures for a mere € 10
4. You’re actually stealing from the charity that these figures were made for.

So there.

“As long as comic book superheroes don’t exist, it’s up to us to clean up the mess” - Much as I like the concept of this campaign, its execution should have been thought through more carefully.  And it could have been a bit less patronizing.

(via Ads of the World)

Read the rest of this entry »

The Smurfs are celebrating their 50th anniversary with a tour across Europe. So far, they’ve turned up in Angoulème, Ghent and Scheveningen, and in each of these cities, thousands of lifesize white Smurfs turn up. If you find one, you can take him home, paint him and take part in a competition. But at the same time, these little gnomes also create awareness about Unicef, the Smurfs’ and Studio Peyo’s charity of choice (remember the quite disturbing ad they did together last year).

Check out the mirth and surprise at each of these locations, and especially admire the Astérix smurf that Albert Uderzo painted in Angoulème.

And if you’re not in Europe, or just to lazy to go smurf hunting, why not buy your own ? They’re for sale at the Unicef Shop, they’re like three apples high (which is about 7 inches) and they’re only 10 Euro’s (which is about 15 USD, I gather). So, there’s no reason not to. Get one, paint one, fly.