Brussels
UNICEF is running an ad on Belgian television that dramatizes the horrific impact of war on children by showing Smurfs wailing as bombs fall and their Smurf village is blown up. The Smurfs, little blue cartoon creatures, are a Belgian invention, first appearing in a 1958 comic. A spokesman for the U.N. children’s agency said that images of real children crying and starving had lost the power to shock in today’s world. Seeing their childhood icons destroyed, though, might just jolt Belgian adults into giving money. The ad is deemed not suitable for children and runs only after 9
P.M.
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