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UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, has recruited the Smurfs to deliver a blunt message about the plight of child soldiers.

The campaign advertisement to be broadcast after 9pm on national television in Belgium begins with the blue-skinned characters romping happily, singing their theme song. Then their village is bombed by warplanes. Smurfette is killed by a fiery explosion that leaves Baby Smurf orphaned and crying.

"It's controversial," a spokesman for UNICEF told the Telegraph. "We have never done something like this before but we've learned over the years that the reaction to the more normal type of campaign is very limited." The ad is part of a fund-raising campaign for UNICEF's work rehabilitating child soldiers in Africa.

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[ 12 October 2005: Message edited by: deBeauxOs ]

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Smurfs used as shock treatment in UNICEF's fundraising drive
Cartoon characters' village bombed in anti-war TV commercial

David Rennie
The Daily Telegraph

Saturday, October 08, 2005

BRUSSELS - The people of Belgium have been left reeling by a public service commercial featuring the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes.

The 25-second commercial is the work of UNICEF, and is to be broadcast on TV across Belgium next week as a public fundraiser. It is intended as the keystone of a drive, by UNICEF's Belgian arm, to raise about $145,000 for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi.

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