NPR

Comic Relief Tries To Improve Its Charity Ads. How's It Doing?

We asked the experts to weigh in on the U.K. charity's new campaign that promises to put "local heroes" in the spotlight.
A screenshot from one of Comic Relief's videos from their Sport Relief campaign.

The British charity Comic Relief gets a lot of flack for its celebrity-focused fund-raising ads. One of its videos, with pop star Ed Sheeran visiting a Liberian slum, was dishonored with the "worst charity ad of 2017" award from a watchdog group called Radi-Aid.

They've also been criticized for portraying Africans as helpless victims, as British member of parliament David Lammy said on a March 12 BBC program.

Lately, the charity is adjusting

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