I didn’t watch the Superbowl, but it’s almost impossible to miss the cavalcade of high-end commercials that are produced for the event. And despite the fact that 45% of the viewers are female, most of the ads are aimed squarely at the stereotypical man. The Dodge Charger commercial “Man’s Last Stand” is a perfect example, in which a male voice explains all the “sacrifices” men make, mostly for women, and of course equating that with a need for a new car. While it might take a while for a traditional women’s rights group to create a campaign in response, the great thing about current technology is that an individual can put their response online only days after the commercial airs. “Woman’s Last Stand” is a spot on parody by YouTube user mackenziefegan who provides no details about herself and is not officially associated with any organization, yet she has already garnered almost 200,000 views and thousands of comments! Here’s hoping it creates more debate about the depiction of women in the media…
[Warning there is some Not Safe For Work language]
If you haven’t seen the original you can watch it below…
The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) unveiled today a new Internet resource in partnership with Google/YouTube and renowned ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi.
The video shows a typical 14-year old YouTube user who is passionate about dolphins but is being bullied and harassed by fictitious comments on site. When he sees one particularly hurtful comment he reaches down, grabs the comment, and then responds to it in the remainder of the video.
According to new research from NCPC, young people state that disrespect is growing rapidly in the digital world and say they need help defining and restoring respect among their peers.
YouTube also has a safety center where users can report bullying and other aggressive behaviors on the site or get the valuable tips and information on how to prevent these problems.
I noticed it by myself that I seldom give comments at blogs anymore. And not because of bullying but due to disrespect and indifference most commenters expose these days. And like many friends do, the place to discuss all kind of issues is the safe environment of social networks. It makes blogs and places like YouTube less valuable.
Overview of 37 innovation principles and inspiring examples for a better world. Made by Marc Heleven from New shoes today, a ídea factory based in Belgium.
New shoes today is a growing number of soulmates in business who give support to people and organisations on their road to creation, innovation and change. Together with clients they take on 21st century challenges. Their values: open - drive - unity - fun - care - today.
The transcript of the slideshare presentation with all links can be found here.
Posted by Marc | 4-11-2009 00:13 | Category:
Media
What is special at this LA Times screen? See the banner ads? The original ads are replaced by the DoGooder browser plugin. The plug-in that allows you to support green initiatives, charities and non-profits by simply surfing the web. 50% of the profits go back to several charitable foundations.
How would commercial advertisers think about this ad replacer? According to the DoGooder website the plugin does not block ads. Any CPM revenue agreements remains unaffected.
I don’t tell anything new that the role of the fundraiser is taken over by all of us the last few years. Many new initiatives started to help us with our role in charity. One of them is Pifworld, a charity platform where members can donate to projects they choose.
Today, the first project fundraised by the Pifworld community is a fact. The project Water for School Kids reached it’s budget of 8,500 Euros. The schoolkids of Gunjur will now be provided with clean drinking water improving hygiene and health. That is not the end of this project. Happy Gunjur, the foundation that carries out this project, will keep the Pifworld community updated on a regular basis. They will provide blogs, photos and video updates so Players can see the progress of this project with their own eyes.
Andries van der Meer, founder of Happy Gunjur: “Our success is mostly based on our belief that Pifworld is the new medium for fundraising and the ability to share this belief with others. I also put a lot of effort into the communication with the Players. Overall, Pifworld has proved to be of great added value in the fundraising process.”
Recently I talked with communication manager Nina Motzheim about how Pifworld works. Read more after the break.
An ad campaign was conceived for the Salvation Army in Maine which included co-opting more than 50 local businesses to help promote the message “This Ad Cost Nothing” to infer that more money is available for the real issues dealt with by the organisation.
Recently, local businesses in Portland, Maine, helped us launch an ad campaign that cost absolutely nothing. That’s right. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Sure, a big, expensive campaign could have gotten our name out there. But at what cost? See, it’s thinking like this that helps us give 83 cents of every dollar donated directly to the people who need it most. Like our fellow northern New Englanders in need of food, shelter, rehabilitation, elderly services…even disaster assistance.
Noteworthy in engaging communities to transmit as well as receive the message.
Organizations are finally catching on to the idea of using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook to really spread the word about their causes.
Above is just one example: Invisible Children - which if you don’t know about already, you should - is using Twitter to spread awareness about their TRI campaign - $3 a week to bring home 3,000 child soldiers. This, coupled with their How It Ends event set to take place in DC at the end of the month, shows how mobilizing the masses around a cause can be a snap with a real-time tool like Twitter.
As part of their campaign this spring to coordinate efforts in over 100 cities in dfferent countries around the globe, the campaign also used tools like Youtube, Mogulus, and Facebook. For details on the “abduction” campaign, see here.
But that’s just one success story. Kevin Jones, founder of a VC firm for social enterprise and the man behind the (awesome!) madness that will be the SoCap09 conference in San Francisco in September, was so kind to chat with me about how socially conscious operations using innovative social media tactics to make real change. Read on for more standout examples.
In this overheated media 2.0 age full of oneliners and 30 sec messsages it is relief to discover three movie pearls from Italy.
“PerFiducia” (Have Faith) a initiative from bank Intesa Sanpaolo, intent to recount the positive and vital forces that animate our country,” according to the PerFiducia Web site.
“We wanted to do something useful to contrast the negative mood that was growing in people, because apart from the economic crisis there is also a widespread crisis of faith in the future,” said Vittorio Meloni, head of internal relations for Intesa Sanpaolo. This was not the moment for a traditional ad campaign touting a bank’s merits, he said. “It’s enough for us that people ask, ‘Why did the bank do this?’ Because the answer implies that we are more than just a bank.”
The three films, of 10 minutes each, will be screened in movie theatres and on internet on perfiducia.com in Italian and English. They will also be on air on TV with a 3 minutes and 90 seconds version.
The YouTube versions are Italian only, including ‘the making of’.
It’s a shame I didn’t know about the Global Oneness Project. A great project about sustainability, conflict resolution, spirituality, art, economics, indigenous culture, and social justice.
The Global Oneness Project is exploring how the radically simple notion of interconnectedness can be lived in our increasingly complex world. The people behind the project travel around the globe since 2006 gathering stories from creative and courageous people who base their lives and work on the understanding that we bear great responsibility for each other and our shared world.
“IN Zimbabwe, the money is so worthless, notes are cheap alternative to paper - and, no, not even toilet paper. The Zimbabwean wants you to “Fight The Crime That Crippled a Country”. The call to arms is writ on bank notes…”
Unusual outdoor campaign for The Zimbabwean, a newspaper (a voice for the voiceless) produced by a group of exiled Zimbabwean journalists. The newspaper is sold in the UK, South Africa and Zimbabwe but when entering the latter is charged an import duty of 55 per cent, making it unaffordable to most of the people in Zimbabwe.
South-Africa based agency TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris created murals, billboards and flyers in Johannesburg using the Z$100 trillion dollar note.
Great idea because the money is worth less than paper after the total collapse of the Zimbabwean economy, due to the Mugabe regime.
“This note cannot buy anything, not even a loaf of bread and certainly not any advertising, but it can become the advertising, it can be a powerful reminder about Zimbabwe’s plight and the need to hold someone accountable.”
Even a region as small as Flanders has different magazines where famous people attach their personality and picture to its cover and content. As of today, Flanders has a new personality glossy: “Tilak”. The luxurious magazine is available in over 3.000 press shops around the region.
‘It’s not about me, it’s about the entire village’ (quote not on cover)
Tilak is a castless Indian woman put forward by Broederlijk Delen, as the face of their campaing about India. It’s a one time magazine bringing homage to the strength of Indian people.
Kristien Hemmerechts, one of the contributing writers puts it like this:
“With this Glossy, Broederlijk Delen puts a definitive end to patronizing charity. Every page brings homage to the strength of indigenous Indians. Whoever had it in their minds these people are merely paupers will finally have to review their opinion.”
There’s a (Dutch) promotional video and some after the break.
Disability in advertising, one of the last taboos? That’s one the questions also in this project called Esthétique et Handicap.
Deza Nguembock, founder of the project:
“As the season of New Year’s resolution and wishes for health, happiness and prosperity fades, some people are still preoccupied with finding solutions to societal issues that persist despite genuine efforts made worldwide. Would it not be great indeed if anyone with any kind of visible disability could hope to be integrated into the advertising and television industries in France, Europe or anywhere else?”
Posted by Marc | 29-01-2009 22:10 | Category:
Media
The Ad Council recently released 24 widgets, each of them for a single issue. The widgets are made for publishing on your social networking profile, blog, or personal homepage. The widgets feature PSAs and other campaign materials.
Each widget will track and display in real-time the size of its exponentially growing support network, acting as further encouragement for users to recruit their friends to join.
The widgets are made in collaboration with Deep Focus, a interactive marketing agency and consultancy.
A great idea and good to see the Ad Council spread the word with new media technology.
But to be honest they made a big mistake. The widgets are big, too big. They don’t fit in Osocio’s right column for example.
GoodGuide recently won in The Crunchies --an annual competition and award ceremony that recognizes most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year. GoodGuide strives to provide the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of products and companies. GoodGuide’s mission is to help you find safe, healthy, and green products that are better for you and the planet. From our origins as a UC Berkeley research project, GoodGuide has developed into a totally independent “For-Benefit” company. They are committed to providing the information you need to make better decisions, and to ultimately shifting the balance of information and power in the marketplace.
Five video’s part from a campaign for Own Your C (Own Your Choices).
Own Your C was originally created to encourage teens not to smoke. But, over time it has developed into an entire movement. Today, Own Your C encourages youth to make better decisions regarding everything, not just tobacco.
At ownyourC.com, a choice-making community, users can discover how their choices affect others. The site ignites conversations around topics that are important to teens - like tobacco, health, self-image, culture, alcohol, relationships and school. It invites users to upload personal images and videos that demonstrate their choices.
The video above expands on the theme of SHARING as a man and woman stand face to face, taking articles of clothing, jewelry and body parts off of themselves and applying them to each other to make an entirely new, unexpected creation.
New Yorkers were surprised with free “special edition” copies of the New York Times on November 12 with the lead story “IRAQ WAR ENDS”. The issue which is dated July 4, 2009 also features articles on expanded bike paths and free universities among other positive news.
“I once heard a story about a homeless man on Hollywood Blvd who really thought he was invisible. But one a day kid handed the man a Christian pamphlet. The homeless guy was shocked and amazed, “what! You can see me? How can you see me? I’m invisible!”
Invisible People is a great and heartbreaking new project. It is a videoblog (vlog) made by Mark Horvath and it is about homelessness in the USA. Mark, a homeless person sixteen years ago, makes in your face portraits of homeless people, raw and unedited. The purpose of the vlog is to make the invisible visible.
In our eyes the homeless are invisable because it’s so much easier to simply close our eyes and and shield our hearts to their existence.
Invisible People: “Some content may be offensive. We hope you’ll get angry enough to do something.”
The video above portraits Mark, his story how he became homeless and how he struggle with daily life.
Posted by Marc | 2-09-2008 22:04 | Category:
Media
Three ads from the Advertising Standards Bureau.
“If you find an ad offensive, tell someone who cares.”
And if you find an ad here shown on Osocio offensive, let us know in the comments :-)
This is the promo video of this years Blog Action Day which will be held at October 15. Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.
This year it is all about poverty. At Osocio we post almost weekly about poverty and of course we participate. The aim of the event is about mass participation.
Bloggers can participate by publishing at least one blog post, podcast or video about poverty on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 and/or by contributing to Blog Action Day 2008 partners TheGlobalFund.org and Kiva.org.
More information how to participate here.
The first Blog Action Day in 2007 focused on the environment and more than 20,000 blogs participated, along with many major corporations and international organizations including - the United Nations Environmental Programme, EU Commissioner for the Environment, Google, Wells Fargo, eBay, Yahoo!, BlogTV Brazil, BlogAs Lithuania.
The most recent Colors magazine, from Benetton, isn’t a conventional one. It is a collection of prayers inspired by the design and meaning of traditional Tibetan flags. The editorial team collected 30 photographs of the Sichuan earthquake and met 30 Tibetan monks around the world. Each monk composed a prayer inspired by one of these photos.
The artwork above:
Name of the monk: Lobsang gendün (Tibetisch Buddhistisches Zentrum Berlin e.V.)
Picture of the earthquake: Xinhua Press/Corbis
Portrait of the monk: artwork: Erik Ravelo (Kiré)/Colors/Fabrica. Photo Dominik Butzmann/laif/Contrasto
These two video’s are part of a USA nationwide campaign leading to a big event at September 5th.
The event, Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C), will air simultaneously and commercial-free on three TV networks - ABC, CBS and NBC - during prime-time hours, and organizers hope to raise millions of dollars to fight the disease. The Stand Up To Cancer event will feature live performances by legendary recording artists and stars from film and television who will perform as well as present filmed content giving viewers insight into cancer.
A few months ago I discovered the website of the Mexican design collective Colectivo Aliados. Stunning activist design work but hard to understand what the collective is about because all was writen in Spanish. Now the launched their new site Colectivo.Aliados 2.0, available in various languages.
Colectivo Aliados is set up by Manolo G, Eréndida M, Alberto M, Carlos R, (Mexico) and Futuro M, (Colombia). They launched the collective in april 2003 with their first project “Aliados vs Aliados” to protest about the invasion in Iraq. They received about 60 posters and did the web distribution.
After that they started more social projects in the same way: everybody who wants to participate can submit artwork and the collective distributed it in several ways.
These two video’s are the winners in the Nationwide (USA) Cyberbullying PSA Development Contest organised by Sony Creative Software, The Ad Council and the National Crime Prevention Council. The purpose of the cyberbullying PSA contest was to leverage the talents of multimedia creators in a way that contributes to the greater good of the online community.
Above the video from Marvin Jimenez. For his entry, Words Really Do Hurt, Jimenez aimed for a sense of loneliness, and the thought of someone deliberately hurting another through the use of technology in the form of words on a computer screen. “The students involved in the cyberbullying PSA project did an exceptional job,” he said. “This was a great opportunity to expose them to communicating through video to support what educators call ‘differentiated instruction’, working with the medium of video on a very meaningful project.”
Hi! We are Judith and Gertjan, a Dutch couple with an open heart and mind for the people of South Asia. In 2010 we will move with our two kids towards South Asia to work as volunteers. Judith is a nurse with a medical management qualification and will be involved in a medical training program. Gertjan is an entrepeneur and will start an education program and an IT business. Our Christian faith is an important motive for us in doing this kind of work.
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Osocio is dedicated to social advertising and non-profit campaigns. It’s the place where marketing and activism collide. Formerly known as the Houtlust Blog, Osocio is the central online hub for advertisers, ad agencies, grassroots, activists, social entrepreneurs, and good Samaritans from around the globe.
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Hi! We are Judith and Gertjan, a Dutch couple with an open heart and mind for the people of South Asia. In 2010 we will move with our two kids towards South Asia to work as volunteers. Judith is a nurse with a medical management qualification and will be involved in a medical training program. Gertjan is an entrepeneur and will start an education program and an IT business. Our Christian faith is an important motive for us in doing this kind of work.
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