World Wildlife Fund condemns "disturbing" 9/11 ad
 
 
September 2, 2009

 
This ad, reportedly made by a team at the advertising agency DDB 
Brasil, sports a tagline that reads “the 2004 Tsunami killed 100 times 
more people than 9/11,” purports to be from the Brazilian branch of the 
World Wildlife Fund, however the organization said Wednesday that it 
was “categorically not solicited nor endorsed” by the organization.
 
This ad, reportedly made by a team at the advertising agency DDB 
Brasil, sports a tagline that reads “the 2004 Tsunami killed 100 times 
more people than 9/11,” purports to be from the Brazilian branch of the 
World Wildlife Fund, however the organization said Wednesday that it 
was “categorically not solicited nor endorsed” by the organization.
Photograph by: DDB Brazil image, AdWeek

OTTAWA — The World Wildlife Fund condemned Wednesday an advertisement 
claiming to be from the environmental group circulated on the Internet. 
The ad shows an "offensive" scene where dozens of airplanes are 
converging on downtown New York.

The ad, sporting a tagline that reads "the 2004 Tsunami killed 100 
times more people than 9/11," purports to be from the Brazilian branch 
of the World Wildlife Fund, however the organization said Wednesday 
that it was "categorically not solicited nor endorsed" by the 
organization.

The final line in the ad is "The planet is brutally powerful. Respect 
it. Preserve it" and is accompanied by WWF's recognizable panda logo.

"It is not a WWF ad," said Josh Laughren, a spokesman for the Canadian 
branch of the WWF. "We don't like it and we find it offensive. We find 
it as disturbing as anyone else."

Laughren said the ad was produced by an agency pitch to the 
organization.

"It was an unpleasant surprise. I guess they thought it was clever but 
it's not. We just hope that people will accept that it's not ours very 
quickly," he said. "It's so far out of line with how we operate."

The organization became concerned over the fake ad after bloggers 
circulated the photo and blamed the WWF for exploiting the Sept. 11, 
2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

The WWF is investigating the unauthorized use of its logo, said 
Laughren.

The ad was reportedly made by a team at the advertising agency DDB 
Brasil. The company issued a statement to the New York Daily News 
saying that the team no longer worked for DDB and apologized to "anyone 
who was offended or affected by the ad."