This is a poster from New Ark Mission of India, trying to persuade people to donate their old clothes to India. Their aim is to induce affective empathy on people so that they are more likely to donate. In my opinion, a poster which consists of short narratives about the event is not sufficient to evoke sufficient affect for empathizing and incentive for donating.
Eisenberg and Miller (1987) reexamined the literature relevant to the relation of empathy to prosocial behaviors by providing a comprehensive review of published studies, unpublished manuscripts and dissertations. Meta-analyses were computed with a group of warranted research studies. The authors summarized 20 studies involving 29 samples. These samples are homogeneous with regard to their estimates of the relevant correlation. Eisenberg and Miller concluded that there was no significant relation between picture indices of empathy and prosocial behavior.
To improve the effectiveness of their advert, they may instead produce a poster, or even a booklet, with many real life photos of children in India. The more information people get, the more incentive they have to donate.
Reference:
Eisenberg, N., & Miller, P.A. (1987). The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviours. Psychological Bulletin, 101(1), 91-119.
well done. This ad seems to almost induce the opposite of similarity altercasting -- perhaps, an 'outgroup altercasting'-- which is likely to reduce empathy (unfortunately for this ad).
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