At What Point Does a Fundraising Ad Go Too Far?

Is "poverty porn" making a comeback?

That's the term that some people used back in the 1980s to describe attention-grabbing fundraising ads.

Back then, the media was filled with images of starving African children in desperate need of food, seemingly all alone in the world. And folks in the West were invited to save them from their misery.

But not everyone thought these kinds of images were appropriate.

"People in developing countries are not incapable or passively awaiting rescue," says Jennifer Lentfer, director of communications at IDEX, a San Francisco-based international grant-maker, and a former lecturer on global development communications at Georgetown University. "Poverty, conflict, disasters, injustice is heartbreaking, but it doesn't mean people are victims."