This picture of a UN peacekeeper was staged for a South African newspaper’s ad campaign
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 14, 2021 at 13:00
- 2 min read
- By AFP Singapore
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
A picture of what looks to be a UN peacekeeper was shared in May 2021 by a Singaporean Facebook page here.
The misleading post's caption says: “Largest most useless organisation in the world. UNinvolved in peace? Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Myanmar...”
The blue helmet is a signature of the UN peacekeepers.
The picture has been shared over the years, with captions blaming the UN’s inactions or failures in various conflicts, for example on Facebook here, here and here; and on Instagram here, here and here; on Twitter here and here; and Reddit here.
The claim, however, is misleading.
A reverse image search on TinEye, followed by a keyword search, found this picture, posted on the website Ads of the World on December 26, 2007.
The photo is credited to South African advertising agency FCB Cape Town and South African photographer Chad Henning.
The genuine photo shows the word “Africa” on the sign, instead of “peace”, as seen in the photo in the misleading post.
Henning, the Cape Town-based photographer, told AFP on June 10, 2021, that the picture was part of a series of advertising campaign for Die Burger, an Afrikaans-language newspaper based in Cape Town.
“The works won several awards for advertising,” Henning said. “The shots were set up and produced like a journalistic photo.”
He also emailed AFP the photos from the ad campaign, which can also be viewed on his website here.
Below is a screenshot of Henning’s website:
Below is a screenshot comparison of picture from the misleading post (L) and the genuine photo (R):
Die Burger’s ad campaign won multiple awards, as reported here in 2008 and here in 2007.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
