BigShinyThing

The campaign is due to be broadcast in Belgium next week. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand in hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around the familiar village of mushroom shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain down. The smurfs scatter and run in vain from the onslaught. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing, surrounded by prone Smurfs. The endline reads, “Don’t let war affect the lives of children.” The ad is part of a fundraising drive to raise £70,000 for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi.

Philipppe Henon, a spokesman for Unicef Belgium, said his agency had set out to shock, after concluding that viewers had become immured to traditional warzone images. “It’s controversial,” he said. “We have never done something like this before, but we’re learned over the years that the reaction to the more normal type of campaign is very limited.”

Unicef’s agency, Publicis, decided the best way to convey the impact of war on children was to tap into the earliest, happiest memories of Belgian television viewers. They chose the Smurfs, who first appeared in a Belgian comic in 1958. The animation was approved by the family of the Smurf’s late creator, “Peyo”.

Julie Lamoureux, account director at Publicis for the campaign, said the agency’s original plans were toned down.

We wanted something that was real war - Smurfs losing arms, or Smurfs losing a head - but they said no.

Footage of the ad has already appeared online.