Ethics and rhetoric of the starving child

Maddox, Marion

doi:10.1080/10350339309384410

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In 150 clippings (32 percent), the child was looking down, away, or up at the camera, potentially portraying them in a position inferior to the reader. This is in contrast with Maddox's (1993) analysis of aid advertisements in which the majority of the photographs were constructed so that the child looked up at the reader, possibly indicating a difference in message strategy.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 62%

Development porn? Child sponsorship advertisements in the 1970s

Mittelman

Neilson

2011

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing

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PurposeChild sponsorship programs have been accused of representing children in the developing world in a manner described as “development porn”. The purpose of this paper is to take an historical approach to investigating the use of advertising techniques by Plan Canada, a subsidiary of one of the oldest and largest child sponsorship‐based non‐governmental development agencies, Plan International, during the 1970s. This time period represents an important era in international development and a time of significant change in the charitable giving and advertising industries in Canada.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct a content analysis on an archival collection of 468 print advertisements from the 1970s.FindingsA description of the “typical” Plan Canada fund‐raising ad is presented and shown to be different, in several aspects, from other advertisements of the time period. It was determined that Plan Canada's advertisement did not cross the delicate line between showing the hardship and realities of life in the developing world for these children and what became known as “development porn”.Originality/valueThere has been little previous research which focuses specifically on the design of charity advertisements. This paper presents a historically contextualized description of such ads, providing a baseline for further research. It also raises important questions regarding the portrayal of the “other” in marketing communications and the extent to which aid agencies must go to attract the attention of potential donors.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 62%

Development porn? Child sponsorship advertisements in the 1970s

Mittelman

Neilson

2011

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing

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“…Additionally, they find that gaze plays an important role in the success of a fundraising advertisement with direct eye contact eliciting the greatest response from donors (Radley and Kennedy 1997). This is supported by Maddox (1993, p. 86) who argues that direct gaze into the eyes of a potential donor represents “a demand which is very explicit: send money now”. Both Maddox (1993) and Radley and Kennedy (1997) find that the message “these people need help” must be literally portrayed for it to be acknowledged by the reader.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…This is supported by Maddox (1993, p. 86) who argues that direct gaze into the eyes of a potential donor represents “a demand which is very explicit: send money now”. Both Maddox (1993) and Radley and Kennedy (1997) find that the message “these people need help” must be literally portrayed for it to be acknowledged by the reader.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…This is supported by Maddox (1993, p.86) who argues that direct gaze into the eyes of a potential donor represents "a demand which is very explicit: send money now". Both Maddox (1993) and Radley and Kennedy (1997) find that the message "these people need help" must be literally portrayed for it to be acknowledged by the reader. Hansen, et al (2014) found that the most important recipient country characteristic for donors on average is hunger and malnutrition, followed by child mortality, quality of infrastructure, income per capita, and, least importantly, ties to the donor's home country.…”

Section: Imagery In News and Advertisingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biases in Charitable Giving to International Humanitarian Aid

Mittelman

Dow

2018

Journal of Macromarketing

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At a time when government support for international humanitarian aid is decreasing, organizations devoted to helping in times of disaster are looking ever more to the individual donor for financial contributions. In this paper, we explore the relationship between the donor and the distant other by introducing the concepts of psychic distance and psychic distance stimuli to the macromarketing literature and exploring the role of psychic distance in fundraising for international humanitarian aid. It is our contention that by better understanding the biases that psychic distance introduce into the system, an improved flow of donations for the betterment of the distant needy and a more effective marketing system can be achieved. We offer four propositions for future testing and exploration.

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“…This is supported by Maddox (1993, p. 86) who argues that direct gaze into the eyes of a potential donor represents "[a demand which is very explicit: send money now". Both Maddox (1993) and Radley and Kennedy's (1997) find that the message "these people need help" must be literally portrayed in order for it to be acknowledged by the reader.…”

Section: Charitable Giving and Distant Othersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Charitable Giving to Distant Others: An extended theory of planned behaviour model

Mittelman¹

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Asking the question why consumers make the choices they do when it comes to charitable giving has interested a diverse group of research scholars from a wide variety of disciplines. While a broad body of literature on charitable giving exists, less research has focused on why donors give internationally or to "distant others".This dissertation attempts to answer the following overarching research questions: Why do charitable donors support distant others? How do they decide whom to support?A mixed methods approach is used in two main studies.The first is an exploratory study of Canadian charitable donor behaviour on Kiva.org. Results showed that donors lend on Kiva because of the difference they are making in someone's life and because they have the ability to demonstrate caring.There was a strong, positive correlation between the popularity of loans by country between the Kiva Global data and the Canadian data. However, a more detailed examination revealed possible socio-political and cultural ties between lenders andborrowers.An extended model of the theory of planned behaviour for charitable giving to distant others is then proposed that includes five new constructs to the charitable giving and donor behaviour literature: belief in a just world, justice restoration efficacy, psychic distance, ethnic identity and cultural exposure. A survey of 417 individuals,

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Ethics and rhetoric of the starving child

Cited by 8 publications

References 3 publications

Development porn? Child sponsorship advertisements in the 1970s

Development porn? Child sponsorship advertisements in the 1970s

Biases in Charitable Giving to International Humanitarian Aid

Charitable Giving to Distant Others: An extended theory of planned behaviour model

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