• by Les Luchter , 56 minutes ago

“One in six American children are living in poverty,” declares a housewife in a new :60 PSA addressing child poverty. “I think about their faces, I think about their families, and I think... that's not my problem.”

“Almost 12 million kids,” elaborates another woman. “But I don’t know them. Do you know them? Because if you know them, you should be the one to help them.”

The excuses keep coming from others, until the spot ends with a graphic: “Join us in not doing anything about childhood poverty at notourproblem.org,” followed by, “This message is in no way affiliated with Comic Relief.”

The URL, of course, redirects to comicrelief.org, where viewers can learn how to “take a stand” against childhood poverty.

The satirical campaign, created by Quality Meats, includes TV, out-of-home, print, digital, audio and social. The video also comes in :30 and :15 versions. Comic Relief says this is its “first dedicated, brand-focused national campaign.”

“We are fortunate to have secured significant pro bono media commitments across major national linear TV, CTV, digital OOH, audio streaming, and print platforms,” Comic Relief told Marketing Daily.  “Because these campaign flights are rolling out sequentially across regional and national networks throughout the fall, we are honoring our partners’ preferred announcement schedules and will be sharing specific corporate partner spotlights as their individual placements go live.”  

In addition to the PSAs, Comic Relief is launching Neighborhood Festivals, described as a nationwide series of free events “giving people the opportunity to meet their neighbors and connect directly with local organizations working to end childhood poverty.” The first Festival, Sept.19 at the Paramount Pictures Studio Lot in Los Angeles, will include comedy performances from The Groundlings and UCB.

This Comic Relief, incidentally, is not the now-defunct nonprofit of the same name that fought homelessness and ran star-filled HBO specials, also called “Comic Relief,” from 1986 to 2010.

The new Comic Relief is perhaps best known for running Red Nose Day on NBC since 2015.

This week, however, in a press release announcing an Oct. 19 “Comic Relief Live” show at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the nonprofit specifically cited the 40^th anniversary of the original HBO special without distinguishing between the two organizations.

There is an HBO connection, as that network’s John Oliver will host this year’s event. The 1986 show was hosted by Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams.