Dec 27, 2008 08:30 PM EDT by Joanna Stern
One Laptop per Child (OLPC) has been aggressively promoting its Give 1, Get 1 program through donated national advertising spots this holiday season. The commercial starring a small African girl named Zimi has been airing for weeks. And beyond that, there was also a Tom Brady ad and a controversial and violent one with footage of children involved in warfare and prostitution. But the non-profit has secured a celebrity spokesperson from beyond the grave; one that we are fairly confident hasn’t promoted any technology products in the last 28 years. John Lennon. OLPC has worked with Yoko Ono to create a digitally enhanced advertisement of the former Beatle urging television viewers to purchase the laptop developed and aimed at children in the developing world. Check out the advertisement, which started airing on Christmas Day on national television outlets, embedded below. “Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge,” a digitally created Lennon says in the ad. “You can give a child a laptop and more than imagine, you can change the world,” he states. The ad is slightly spooky, but powerful, given the voice. Clearly, Yoko Ono felt strongly enough about OLPC’s mission to put her legendary husband’s name, voice, and face behind the cause. But would Lennon have felt strongly about the cause? While many see the benefit in giving children laptops (see our first hand account of the impact giving 30 XO laptops to a small village in Mali), others are skeptical about giving children computers before other life necessities. Either way, we put it to you readers. Do you think Lennon would have stood behind OLPC’s XO?
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December 28th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
John Lennon would probably have endorsed the OLPC. I seriously doubt he would have endorsed manipulating dead celebrities to say things that we “IMAGINE” they might have said. (Pun intended for the thinking public) Congratulations on a bold new level of newspeak. George Orwell would be proud. What’s next? Elvis for peace in Darfur? Why not? I believe that he would have supported it. John Wayne would probably have gotten behind Aids education and prevention measures. What about Humprey Bogart against global warming? Where does it end? Why do we need dead people to help us envision a better future? I suppose there’s nobody alive today that would agree to this? Sad times.
December 29th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Joanna, from your description I was expecting *far* better execution than this.
A very poor mimic of Lennon’s voice pasted over grainy stock footage where his lips vaguely make the correct shapes is hardly, “A digitally created Lennon.”
Ono and the OLPC folks should be ashamed.