Amnesty Teleshop

Mother's first campaign for Amnesty International since it won the account in early 2005 is a darkly comedic pastiche of daytime TV shopping channels, only with arms for sale in the place of the more usual keep-fit devices. Shot by Dougal Wilson through Blink Productions, the cinema ad deliberately sets out to grab viewers' attention by offering AK-47 machine guns for sale via the spoof shopping channel Teleshop. Frighteningly authentic sales presenters talk up the weapon, describing how loopholes in international law mean it's very unlikely that anyone purchasing one of the weapons will ever be prosecuted; how payment is accepted in hard cash or diamonds; and how the guns are so easy to work, even children can use them--as evidenced by a number of ongoing civil wars in Africa fought by child soldiers. The ad is backed with a DM campaign, which features models posing with weapons shot in the style of a spoof mail-order catalogue, and is completed with online and viral elements.