imagine
IMAGINE Onlus.
This ad is truly horrifying—a vulture is carrying off a newborn baby—but the shock factor is intentional. As of last year, the Democratic Republic of Congo reportedly had the world’s second-highest infant-mortality rate, and Rome-based nonprofit organization IMAGINE Onlus is responding to this urgent issue with Project Born, a campaign for women and children. IMAGINE Onlus wanted an ad that would be undeniable, they explain at their website, so that no one could excuse their inaction by saying that they didn’t know about the problem. (The page for Project Born is in Italian, but there’s a rough English translationhere.)
The ad was conceived by Publicis, and the photo was created by Fulvio Bonavia. “The concept behind the ad is that in Congo, the first day of a child’s life is often the last one, too,” explains Fulvio, who worked with Publicis art director Alexandra Todero and creative directors Cristiana Boccassini and Bruno Bertelli. “So the vulture takes the place of the stork…”
Here’s more from Fulvio about the making of the image:
“I shot the vulture in the north of Italy. A local falconer had him fly for me. The shoot was quite easy and cool, as everyone including the vulture was very collaborative. I photographed the child in the garden of my studio in Milan. His name is Tyson, and he was a great guy. I decided to shoot everything with natural light to be more realistic and different from the imagery we see in advertising these days. The sky came from my personal archive—I shot it from an airplane. And I composed everything together myself, as always.” Text by Kristina Feliciano
