Orange MPH advert

A storm is brewing over a TV advert by Orange for the Make Poverty History campaign. The advert is one in a long series run by Orange in which film stars approach Orange with ideas for a movie which all get either laughed out or disastrously amended by the fictional Orange Film Board. The MPH advert has Ewan McGregor (from Star Wars) pitching a movie to raise awareness of starvation in Africa. The Orange Film Board, predictably, turns the idea of a serious movie around and suggests that the starving kids should dress like rappers to lighten up the script. It is understandable why this would cause offence but it is pretty obvious that the whole thing is spoof and that the joke is on the fictional “Orange Film Board” with their assumptions about black people and rap and their concern with box office and focus groups. The MPH txt number is present through out the advert and the advert seemed effective. If orange had run an advert with the usual pictures of dying children with a serious voiceover saying, “txt to save lives” people would have just switched off. Utilising the long running format of the Orange Film Board and making themselves the butt of the joke works well. Watch the advert for yourself and share your thoughs on whether you think it is in bad taste or not.