With images of real people killed, injured and/or left as refugees from war losing their emotional resonance, UNICEF has turned to killing Smurfs.

In an advertisement set to appear in Belgium starting next week, approved by the family of the Smurfs' creator "Peyo," very bad things happen to the blue cartoon creatures:

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.

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

In test showings, the sight of beloved cartoon characters killed by bombs proved far more effective than similar images from the real world at sending UNICEF's anti-war message.

(Via jwz)

Dangit, there's no link to the animation!

Posted by: Stefan Jones on October 8, 2005 8:44 PM

Dont worry im sure it will all over the internet 5 seconds after its shown.

Posted by: wintermane on October 8, 2005 9:43 PM

It was on TV here. We only got to see part of the clip. Please find it here:

http://www.vrtnieuws.net/nieuwsnet_master/versie2/nieuws/details/051004Unicef/index.shtml#

There was an interesting debate about it, and I got the impression that most people think it's a good strategy, even though (or precisely because) the Smurfen are a national symbol. :-)

Posted by: Lorenzo on October 9, 2005 6:18 AM

It seems like they put the entire 'Shock and Awe' clip online. It's in the middle of the video-fragment.

Posted by: Lorenzo on October 9, 2005 6:28 AM

Clearly Gargamel has committed these unspeakable acts of smurfacide to gain control of their valuable smurfberry patches. We must end his reign of terror, send in a mission to search for mass weapons of smurfruction.

Posted by: Flannel Flower on October 9, 2005 10:53 AM

Smurf Village might have had a chance to thwart the raid, but S.A.M. Missile Battery Operator Smurf was serving with the Amalgamation of the Agreeable occupying TrollDale.

Posted by: Stefan Jones on October 9, 2005 2:10 PM

Your all SICK!!! EVIL!!!! DEPRAVED!!!!!! I knew there was a reason I loved yas!

Posted by: wintermane on October 9, 2005 4:48 PM

Does anyone have a link to the actual movie? The link above is only a stop-frame fragment...Thanks!

Posted by: Dazza Jackson on October 9, 2005 8:47 PM

No the link above works. You have to click the text-link in the right corner under "video" where it says "Campagne voor oorlogskinderen" ("campaign for children of war".

http://www.vrtnieuws.net/nieuwsnet_master/versie2/nieuws/details/051004Unicef/index.shtml#

The clip is in the middle of the video-fragment.

Posted by: Lorenzo on October 10, 2005 4:01 AM

The clip is available at:
http://media.putfile.com/end_of_smurfs

Posted by: Anon on October 10, 2005 7:18 AM

Maybe it only looks stop-frame to us in North America because the network from Europe can't handle video transmission with its bandwidth. It looked like stills that change every few seconds to me as well.

Posted by: Pierre Savoie on October 12, 2005 10:15 PM