Not smurfy

It isn't easy being a smurf. Not only are they hunted by the decidedly unsmurfy Gargamel as ingrediants for his magic schemes - now they get bombed by the UN. UNICEF, the United Nations Childrens Fund, has used the smurfs in an advertisment in its latest fund-raising campaign:

The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom- shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky.

Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs.

The final frame bears the message: "Don't let war affect the lives of children."

Perversely, this is expected to have more impact than an ad showing actual people suffering. But I guess nothing captures childhood innocence than cartoon characters...