The advert, which has since been removed from YouTube, has received mixed reactions on social media. It showed a young black boy being given treats by the wealthy white woman.
In the opening scene he rests his head on her lap as she feeds him snacks and strokes him and later rewards him with another snack when he brings her a newspaper in bed.
The boy then kneels next to the woman as she sits on a chair and feeds him a final snack after which the advert ends with the statement: “The average domestic dog eats better than millions of children.”
However, Feed a Child has defended the advert, arguing the commercial is based on the shocking societal truth that many domestic animals in this country are better fed than many children.
“The commercial is intentionally emotive to trigger the necessary awareness on this issue to generate engagement and contributions. There was no intention to cause offence,” the organisation said in a statement.
“Feed a Child aims to provide support for the devastating impacts caused by poverty and malnutrition in South Africa. Our main mission is to make people aware of the fact that there are thousands of children out there that they work with on a daily basis that don’t even have access to one meal per day.”
The organisation said it was monitoring responses to the advert and was open to any feedback, but noted that it remained valid and was serving an important purpose of raising awareness.
The organisation had since also released a revised video , in which its founder and CEO Alza Rautenbach defended the advert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkfCrG93LNI&feature=youtu.be
She acknowledged the negative connotation in the advert but asked “what if this advert changed a child’s life?”.
“… Like a child I don’t see race or politics; the only thing that is important to me is to make a difference in a child’s life and to make sure that that child is fed on a daily basis.”
She appealed to the public not to look beyond the perceived racial matter in the advert and “stand together and make difference”.
