Ad of the Day: This provocative Amnesty campaign may make you sick

Newspaper print ad campaign uses ink made from human faeces to pressure the South African government into irradicating dangerous pit toilets in schools.Joe Public has developed a newspaper ad for Amnesty International that warns readers, ‘Reading this should make you sick.’Focusing on the message reveals that illegal pit toilets are still in use in more than 3,900 South African schools and that although the contaminated ink used has been sterilized, school children who can’t avoid the toilets in question don’t have the luxury of sanitation. Read more here

Newspaper print ad campaign uses ink made from human faeces to pressure the South African government into irradicating dangerous pit toilets in schools. Ad printed in ink contaminated with human faeces / Joe Public and Amnesty Joe Public has developed a newspaper ad for Amnesty International that warns readers, ‘Reading this should make you sick.’ Focusing on the message reveals that illegal pit toilets are still in use in more than 3,900 South African schools and that although the contaminated ink used has been sterilized, school children who can’t avoid the toilets in question don’t have the luxury of sanitation.

There’s also a physical danger posed by pit toilets as this year a child drowned in one. More than a million South African children are exposed to the physical and health risks posed by the toilets. Despite plain pit toilets being banned in 2013 ahead of a deadline for removal of 2016, deadlines and extensions have been repeatedly missed.

The Department of Basic Education has set itself a deadline for removal of 2025 but Amnesty wants to bring this forward. The ad has been rolling out across South African press and encourages readers to sign a petition calling for change via a QR code..