this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2026
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A Boring Dystopia

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I got the ad pictured in frame 2 today and it made me sad, so I made this meme. So many levels of sad:

  • Sponsored ad for a charity, plausible but seems fishy.
  • The needy children are positioned as "earning" the food and education they will get by your donation by writing back to you. Just way too overtly transactional.
  • The advertising tactic seems to prey on the lonely.
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[–] Fredselfish@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 hours ago

This reminds of the ads in the 80's. Guy walking around some poor African country alwhile telling you for less then a dollar a day you could help a child in need. But the truth between the commercial and all the so called "packets" you get from the kids you "sponsor" would probably eat up most if not all that money. I doubt any needy kids were helped. Those ads ran for years and saw them every day multiple times a day.

[–] HeyJoe@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

But... I need healthcare too...

[–] DrBanjo@reddthat.com 2 points 4 hours ago

You need to find your own pen pal to write to and get health insurance

[–] commiunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 hours ago

it's AI, theres no reason to help children except for PR or legal purposes

[–] TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 hours ago

Wasn't that the premise of "About Schmidt"?

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 11 points 8 hours ago

The letters will be AI. The whole thing probably is.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Traditionally a lot of these sponsorship charities only had a few dozen kids' profiles that you'd choose from to "sponsor", since the logistics of cataloguing and maintaining every individual would have been completely impractical. So little Miggy would have ten thousand different people all thinking they were sponsoring him personally, but in reality he was only ever a stock photo to begin with.

I can only guess how much more insidious this will have gotten in the AI age.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Assuming the charity is managing the money appropriately and donating it, is it insidious at all to use a stock photo?

Like it's insidious that we live in a world that to donate people feel like they need recognition from the hungry child. It's more insidious that there are hungry children at all of course

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Can we really not agree that lying is bad? And now we have AI the lies are likely to get even more elaborate.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago

I'd lie if it meant a child was fed, unfortunately there's very little in this world that is only good or bad. There's a lot of grey

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 29 points 12 hours ago

"And here is where I hang my poverty porn. Ooh, Miguel just sent me a spicy drawing of a sun with a sad face and several bisected corpses littered across a hill. I don't know what 'mih fumilya" means but this is going right on the fridge!"

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 9 points 10 hours ago

To counter this, there is actually a dignity thing. In quite a lot of cultures, including some western ones, there is shame attached to accepting charity. If the person feels like they worked for it, it gives them a sense of accomplishment and dignity. There was an old anecdote of someone who had a neighbour who was constantly needing financial/material help and was in need, and that person's family was helping them. From time to time, they'd go and ask that neighbour for smaller things, such as some salt or stationery. They did this so their worse off neighbour felt more as equals than a lesser.

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 4 points 9 hours ago

"Oh, so you don't feel like writing today, huh? I guess you don't feel like eating today as well!"

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 13 points 12 hours ago

My first reaction was also the "and YOU get...".

It's a charity, right? I'm not expecting to get anything. I'm the one who is giving.

[–] Yew@lemmy.world 20 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

We've had these sorts of ads for awhile. Where you're guilted for not giving money to sad dogs or whatever. This was subject of S01E08 of South Park about 'Starvin Marvin'.

[–] hahattpro@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago

Yo is it another type of s&x chat, just with different content ?