The ad will air tonight during Channel 4's 7pm news, which will be reporting on the day's G8 summit in Scotland. Due to the fact that the commercial is two minutes long, Channel 4 has agreed to extend the 7.35pm newsbreak.
The ad, created by DRTV specialists Watson Phillips Norman, was filmed in Ethiopia last October. It features Ethiopians asking viewers to help them fight poverty. The commercial ends with a group of locals holding up placards bearing the charity's direct response telephone number.
The soundtrack to the ad is Enya's 'The Memory of Trees', which publishers EMI and Warner have agreed to let the charity use free of charge.
"These people are not just the have-nots, they're the haves as well. They have resilience, the like of which you or I could never dream of. They have intelligence and they have ideas," Thompson said.
ActionAid is one of the leading charities involved in the fight against poverty in the developing world.
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