Toy soldier parody ad highlights veterans' plight, war's horrors

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/15/toy-soldier-parody-ad-highligh.html

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Darkly funny, and the attention to detail (e.g. the tramp juice in the first commercial) is amazing.

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Sorry. My English is challenged here:

It was produced by Veterans for Peace UK, to challenge a British Army ad campaign aimed at youngsters, and voiced by Matt Berry.

Which of the two is “voiced by Matt Berry”? The “British Army ad campaign aimed at youngsters” or the answer by Veterans for Peace UK? I suppose the latter?!

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At the end the saluting soldiers all have missing fingers-- a known issue with the “kung fu grip” model G.I. Joe that plays into the theme nicely.

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The kids acting in those parodies are going to grow up with a twisted sense of humor towards vets.

Good right?

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That’s some dark shit.

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Matt Berry voiced the satire that was created by Veterans for Peace UK.

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Thanks! Figured that, just not from the sentence :wink:

Wow, very dark indeed. And the details are all incredibly on point. But I think they did miss a beat by not having one of the soldiers in the last ad salute with a prosthetic.

I still have a scar from when GI Joe and the Silver Knight had a knock down drag out flaming gobs of plastic fight that left one of them a smudgy puddle.

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Declarations of war should be money bills with mandated funding for the future veterans of the conflict.

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If you go through to the linked website, the campaign is also highlighting the fact that the UK is one of the only countries that still recruits children of 16 into the armed forces.

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Very well done.

“You’ve been promoted…”

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Darren Cullen is the creator of other strange things at https://www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/

Wow. That is dark. Would never fly here. Sweep those cases under the rug and never speak of them again. Damn.

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I’d recognize Matt Berry’s voice anywhere. His role in “The IT Crowd” was incredibly funny.

The one seems to have a hand that’s darker than the rest of his features so I assumed it was a wooden hand. A more obvious prosthetic might have been better thought yeah.

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“You wouldn’t steal a baby!”

He is a voice in Disenchantment now as well.

By which you mean “make them live on the street in plain sight”.

I want my kids to grow up into a world where there are no vets. I suspect the makers of these ads do, too.

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I want a version of these ads for FPS video games. I keep seeing commercials for either Gears of War or some Tom Clancy game with review quotes like “The most realistic combat action ever!” and I’m thinking, are there parts of the game where you have to stop shooting faceless Bad Guys to apply pressure with futility to your buddy’s GSW as he bleeds out, pisses his pants, and cries for his mother before he dies in the mud because of an ill-conceived foreign policy to enrich a corporation or some politicians personal grudge against a rival leader? Because maybe we should have kids play that game before they get amped up about joining the military.

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Those wacky brits! I can appreciate protest whether or not I agree, and dark humor is best humor… but the suicide scene crossed a line for me.

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