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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald

The ads that will change the way parents feel about Facebook

Two children "play grown-ups" in this faux ad by the Youngbloods WA team of rising advertising industry talents. Picture by Gruen/ABC

They are the television commercials you may never see that could change the way you feel about Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and all the other social media vortexes sucking you deeper into your smartphone.

They appeared on The Pitch segment of this week's edition of Gruen on ABC TV.

You remember television - it's the one with the commercial breaks and programs that play when the TV station wants to play them, not when you are in the mood to watch them.

Gruen, hosted by comedian Wil Anderson, bills itself as the show that "tracks advertising almost as closely as advertising tracks you".

Since 2008 it's been holding up a mirror to the advertising industry and the industries that advertise.

On this week's program two teams of rising industry talents were tasked with creating a campaign to convince parents to get off Facebook.

All the talk among politicians and mental health experts and e-safety commissioners of late has been about protecting young people from the damaging effects of social media - a vital conversation for the community to be having.

But what about getting social media-addicted parents to cut down on their screen time?

The faux ads produced by both teams were punch-in-the-face brilliant.

The spot devised by the Youngbloods of Queensland comes from the fictional "No Meta What Alliance" and features a bright-eyed primary school boy showing off his drawing of his hero.

His hero is his mum because, as he proudly tells his classmates, "she's friends with everybody in the whole wide world".

The boy's drawing is a heartbreaker, as is the ad's final message: "Connect with your kids. Not Facebook".

In their ad for Gruen to get parents off Facebook, the Youngbloods Qld team created a message from the No Meta What Alliance. Picture by Gruen/ABC

For their campaign to convince parents to get off Facebook, the Youngbloods team from Western Australia show two kids who decide to "play grown-ups".

They dress up as mum and dad and their role playing - like the ad's word play and comedic timing - is hilarious.

The spot's final moment is devastating. The closing appeal to parents: "Think about your real followers".

Youngbloods is the youth arm of the Advertising Council of Australia and Gruen panellists Russel Howcroft, Todd Sampson, Christina Aventi and Camey O'Keefe were understandably gobsmacked by what their industry's next generation delivered.

The judges were split on which ad was the best, so the duelling teams ended up sharing The Pitch segment's trophy, the Plastic Barcode.

That these ads may never be seen for real on your TV - or smartphone - screen as part of a real social media awareness campaign is a shame.

What's fascinating is that both Youngbloods teams chose to guilt oldies off Facebook by showing the impact of their addictions on their children.

These are ad industry creatives young enough to have experienced first hand through their formative years the emotional and psychological effects of parents failing to manage their own screen time.

No wonder these spots hit hard.

Not that it's fair to lay the blame for social media's deliberately engineered, devastatingly insidious addictiveness on mums and dads.

Pretty safe to say that's all on Meta and friends.

BTW: Good on the gang from Gruen for commissioning these pitches - and for posting these inspired ads on the program's Facebook page. Be sure to give them a like and a share next time you're in there scrolling for something real and true.

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