Style Without Substance: Cause Marketing
i went to youtube to look for video clips of how to transfer HD video from the Sony EX1. wait, let me back up for a second. first, i put the 16 GB SxS Memory Card for XDCAM EX into my mac laptop, launched the sony software, and couldn’t see the card registering as a drive on my computer.
then, i went a searchin’.
in a way only youtube can, i lost my train of thought and was brought down a totally unrelated path. the first link on the youtube home page was to an awareness campaign called US Campaign For Burma.
i like the burmese restaurant on my corner, Village Mingala, and the burmese people who work there, so i clicked through.
basically, from what i gather, a for profit web site called fanista.com convinced a bunch of celebrities to record themselves talking about our collective need to do something about the human rights violations going on in Burma.
fair enough.
however, upon any sort of exploration, there isn’t any real substance to the site. so the youtube site drives me to the burmaitcantwait.org web site. however, this web site:
1. only has celebrity videos talking about burma. no interviews with, like actual burmese people. no interviews with academics who are knowledgeable about burma. just tila tequila, skantilly clad, teaching geography class to a bunch of hormonally crazed ninth graders.
2. the ability to sign up for fanista.com, the “do gooders” behind the campaign.
as their about us section says:
Fanista is a community for entertainment enthusiasts: a place that lets you discover, talk about, and buy entertainment. It provides a first-of-its-kind destination where all of us who love entertainment can come together around our shared passions. And it offers the even crazier idea that all of us who love entertainment ? and who already spend much of our time talking to our friends about our likes and dislikes ? ought to be rewarded, in real ways, for doing what it is we all love doing.
so basically i learn more about fanista and the perks of joining than about actually what is going on in burma.
it seems like the fanista marketing team did a couple bong hits and said “what cause can we ostensibly champion, convince a bunch of celebrities to rally around, and generate massive amounts of new user registrants by co-opting in the name of do-goodery?”
take another bong hit to channel any remaining creative brain cells that didn’t stand to attention after the first fourteen bong hits and the answer becomes as clear as an azure sky:
“burmese rights!”
maybe next month they can convince a bunch of celebrities to rally around little old ladies crossing the street…and sign up a few new users as a totally unintentional consequence.
Peter Cervieri is co-founder of and Director of Business Development for ScribeMedia.Org. His fetish is collecting business cards.
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