Pacific Appeal: Deadly Weapon

In the Pacific, contaminated water kills children every day. But because the crisis feels distant, New Zealanders rarely grasp its scale or urgency. ChildFund New Zealand set out to change that by reframing a familiar childhood object into something no parent could ignore.

Deadly Weapon depicts a young Pacific boy pointing a bright plastic water pistol directly at the camera, a moment that should feel playful, but instead becomes deeply unsettling.

For thousands of children, water itself is the weapon because in many Pacific communities, that innocent stream of water represents a deadly threat. The metaphor is instant, visual, and impossible to look away from.

The campaign’s goal was simple: disrupt complacency.

We wanted New Zealanders to feel what parents in the Pacific feel daily - fear. Children miss school because they spend hours collecting water. Others become gravely ill simply by drinking it. In Solomon Islands, 1 in 14 child deaths are linked to diarrhoea. Across the region, 5 million people still lack access to safe drinking water.

Deadly Weapon didn’t just shock, it broke the daily record of website visits and more importantly the campaign connected New Zealand emotions and got them to help support a crisis occurring right in our Pacific backyard.