Does anyone ever feel a tad sorry for the children? Not only are we handing them a globalised, crisis-ed, capitalised, climatised world, but we pressure them into being the ‘future’ and our ‘hope’ and basically say, yes, you. Fix our mistakes.

I think that Vampire Weekend might have had a better idea when they said “The kids don’t stand a chance.” (Great song too, just by the way).

But I think I would rather be optimistic. Because, in spite of all the efforts to make the world a better place, nobody seems to be succeeding. Lately, my money has been on the new President, and while I think he has a better shot than most, I mean, he’s not a miracle worker.

But children. Children have all of the greatness that we used to have, the potential for wonderful and amazing things. They have the ability to instantly forgive, and to forget petty differences. They look past skin colours, and accents, and socio-economic status.

True, we were all there once. And now, we know better. But I’m hoping that the lesson learned is to help the children hold on to it. To hold on to a time that was good, and true, and pure, where arguments didn’t escalate into global conflicts, and we got that everyone else needed their space.

I think this ad captures that perfectly. Not only does it boil down some of history’s most painful images into entertainment putty, but it serves as a potent reminder that some of these historic arguments are simply this: child’s play, idiot leaders, and immature reactions. The colours are engaging, the ideas hilarious – who wouldn’t want to see a Palestinian and Israeli just Saturday Night Fever it out?

You could go all politically correct on it, and claim that a bunch of flowers couldn’t make up for what the KKK did to African Americans. Or you could just remember that it is in the past, that (most) have moved on, and in fact, half the Republicans are ex-KKK members who have denounced their former allegiances.

So in the spirit of moving on – I know that the whole ‘children should be seen and not heard’ philosophy is generally toast. But we’ve also forgotten the Romantics, people like Blake and Wordsworth, who exalted the child, wanted people to learn from the child. Children were hailed as the only unspoiled beings on the earth.

In times of chaos and crisis, it seems that we’re all looking upwards, asking our leaders for the answers. The other direction might not produce final results, but for some reason, the kids give me hope.

Advertising Agency: Scholz+Friends Hamburg, Germany
Chief Creative Officer: Matthias Schmidt
Executive Creative Director: Stefan Setzkorn
Creative Directors: Gunnar Loeser, Stefanie Voelzow, Markus Daubenbuechel
Art Director / Copywriter: Philipp Cerny
Photographer: Bernd Westphal
Creative: Marius Koopmann
Modeler: Anna Gawrilow

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