Most Disconcerting Video Ever

UNICEF, the United Nations Agency dedicated to protecting children, has made the world's most tasteless commercial.

You can see a brief news story about the video here. Seriously, don't download this at work. It's not snuff, but its very inappropriate for a lot of different settings.

It starts out with an interview of children who have lost limbs in and otherwise been injured by war. It then moves onto the Smurf village, which is bombed. We then see a picture of Baby Smurf sobbing, surrounded by the dead bodies of other Smurfs. It then flashes a "United Nations blue" screen with white text that reads, "Don't let war affect the lives of children." After this we see a pamphlet using an image of the war ravaged Smurfs, and then a press conference and an interview with UNICEF officials, explaining what they've done.

Luckily, the entire video is a series of still pictures, and its in Dutch - so I won't be having nightmares about it this week. Even then its profoundly jarring - and no doubt that's the point. But I think this video clearly goes too far, however noble UNICEF's intentions might be.

You can read an article about it at the conservative Washington Times, which as far as I can tell, were the first to pick up the story in the U.S. (Presumably to discredit the U.N.)

Hat tip to MetaFilter for the link.

UPDATE: Another video with more of the Smurfs is here. Again, it freaks me out.