Amnesty International: Iggy Pop, Dalai Lama And Karl Lagerfeld Images Take A Beating, Make A Point
This could be Amnesty International's greatest hit.Or a serious miss in the organization's campaign against torture.
But whether you appreciate famous faces being photo-shopped into swollen, bloody pulps or not, it's hard to deny these images are arresting.
That's Iggy Pulp... err, Pop. He's apparently admitted that Justin Bieber is 'the future of rock and roll'.
And here's the Dalai Lama:
Now, the real question, what's the point?
Hailing from the Amnesty in Belgium, these images — a third depicts fashion mogul Karl Lagerfeld tattered and battered — include a line, ostensibly said by the famous personage, under duress.
The point, Amnesty suggests, is that anyone will say anything to stop the pain.
“We can’t imagine Iggy Pop saying that Justin Bieber is the future of rock ‘n’ roll,” Philippe Hensmans, director of Amnesty International’s French Belgian section, told the Guardian.
Torture is not truth.
“Governments that use torture… claim these techniques give them precious information, but history has shown that tortured people are usually willing to say anything at all to make the pain stop.”
It hasn't been established, the Guardian notes, whether the Dalai Lama, Lagerfeld or Iggy Pop have actually agreed to participate in the campaign, but it hasn't stopped the organization from spreading the leaflets in Belgian cities.
“We thought it was a quirky but un-maudlin way to attract attention to a tragic reality that often happens in secret,” Hensmans added.
Amnesty launched its Stop Torture campaign in May.
“Governments around the world are two-faced on torture - prohibiting it in law, but facilitating it in practice” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, at the launch.
“Torture is not just alive and well – it is flourishing in many parts of the world. As more governments seek to justify torture in the name of national security, the steady progress made in this field over the last thirty years is being eroded.”