The other day I was riding the subway when I spotted an ad for the anti-poverty non-profit, Windfall. Their tagline, “Wear white for Windfall”. The ad showcased a number of celebrities wearing white (white t-shirts, white belts, etc.). Flash forward to some research I was doing when I happened upon CARE Canada. CARE has a campaign, “Show Your String” in support of International Women’s Day. They utilize Flickr and ask supporters to upload images of themselves with a string around their finger. Hmmm.
Has it come to this? Has the public’s attention span become so short that we can only engage with issues as powerful as poverty, human rights abuse, and disease if they are distilled to simple colours and friendship bracelets? Organization such as Windfall and CARE deserve better. These causes deserve better. Cause marketing efforts should challenge the public. Yes, these are complex issues – and yes, it is difficult to be heard above the marketing fray – but we must respect that the public can handle it. Now, I understand that budgets don’t always afford grand campaigns but co-opting colours and pseudo-jewellery is just plain lazy. Admittedly, I don’t have the statistics to back this up, but I’m willing to bet that the effectiveness of this approach is questionable at best. There can only be one LiveStrong or Pink Ribbon, the rest become watered-down imitations.
I truly believe we need to rethink this cause marketing trend. We need to focus on the quality of engagement versus the quantity. Issues like poverty or breast cancer won’t be solved overnight; it’s going to take a long and concerted effort. Approaches like using colours or bracelets to represent causes might stick in consumers’ minds in the short-term, but they are hardly solutions for any long-term, meaningful conversations about an organization’s cause.
There are many talented (and not so talented) people in marketing and communications. Surely, we can create effective campaigns without breaking the bank. Non-profits and NGO’s must challenge us to do so. More importantly, we creatives must demand this of ourselves. The world’s disadvantaged and suffering are counting on us.
*In case you missed it, watch the video on Saul Bass for a little inspiration.
Virtual Homeless: Technology meets Social Marketing
I love the execution of this idea although I find it somewhat unsettling. It seems sad that we need the spectacle of virtual homeless people in order to connect to social illness. In this case, technology is catalyzing us to act more humanely. Interesting.