"Counterfeiting finances organized crime. It's in the terrorists' utmost interest for you to buy counterfeit products." - CNAC (National Anti-Counterfeit Committee)

This advertising campaign is a fascinating attempt at taking an incredibly complex, multifaceted issue - such as financing political violence - and raising consumer awareness around such issues. Call me crazy but something about these images seems to be lost in translation...........

Do Advertising campaigns have the capacity to responsibly display (conceptually and artistically) such deeply loaded issues that traverse murky social, economic, cultural, ideological and political backwaters that inform the imaginations of the consumer consciousness?

In terms of illicit markets, counterfeit 'luxury' goods may occupy one of the more 'tame' realms. However, evidence suggests that the production and sale of counterfeit items (such as the ones pictured above) is in fact used as a major fundraising mechanism for not only transnational organized criminal groups but also for terrorist organizations.  

http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/cnac_national_anticounterfeit_committee_watch