Campaign for Burma
I’ve got 2 campaigns for Burma in my inbox/tweetfeed today.
First is
“Burma: It Can’t Wait,” a 30-day campaign launched by The Human Rights Action Center and the U.S. Campaign for Burma to help build a million-person movement to free Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma.
This campaign, obviously planned long before the cyclone hit the country last weekend, is about raising the public profile of the country, particularly difficult in the US where the news does not really focus on foreign affairs. There’s celebrity endorsement from people like Will Ferrell, Ellen Page, Anjelica Huston, Judd Apatow, Jennifer Aniston, Julie Benz and Rosanna Arquette, which will help drive awareness from fans. the site is also pretty distributable, with videos, like the one below, sharable wherever, plus Facebook, bebo, and MySpace profiles. The main partner is Fanista, “a community that lets you discover, talk about, and buy entertainment.” They’re hosting the main campaign information and also connecting with it - for new sign ups, coming as the result of theis campaign, 10% of purchases made are donated; you can also sign up and donate directly to the campaign
History has shown that public opinion can impact governments foreign policy, which is one of the few things that will impact the Burmese government. Another is empowering the people in the country to change from within, and the web gives them the more chance than ever to connect internally and externally to try and do this. Supporting them helps. But don’t things to change quickly, South Africa showed it can take a long time.
On a far smaller scale, bloggers and twitter users have come together to put together this page at Just Giving. They’re not after a million people but only 1000 pounds, which will go to the Red Cross. The Burma It can’t Wait campaign is also collecting money for aid. The biggest issue of course, is Burma does not want it; letting aid in means letting foreign workers in, something that scares them. There are aid agencies there already, such as Save the Children, but getting more people and goods will be a challenge.
Both these campaigns are using social media but in different ways. The small one is all about a network of friends, of connections of a small group of people that then trickles out. The US campaign is mass media, using celebrities and PR agencies and broadcast companies to get the attention, social media is just one small par that keeps the online buzz going. Bloggers can write about it to spread the word, people can spread the connection through the social network pages.
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POSTED IN: Buzz Marketing, Pitches, Social Networks
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