oxfam's new campaign

Oxfam's new campaign is called 'Be humankind'. Here's the youtube:



Overall I think it's a bit naff -- like they've dusted off something from the 70s that the intern found when they were cleaning out the storage room under the stairs. The final scene in the youtube clip actually has people projectile vomiting onto 'injustice', turning it into rainbows. I can't wait to join the Unicorns Against Poverty campaign, which must be just around the corner.

Obama and teh interwebs

The Nation has a great article about how Obama is mobilising people using online tools. Some highlights for me are:

• He uses facebook effectively for targetting and organising. Both his campaign team and ordinary punters are setting up events and groups.
• The campaign built their own social networking portal to connect and empower activists called MyBO, where organisers are required to post all events on the site and blog about their efforts.
• More than 350,000 people have already created MyBO accounts, posting more than 10,000 grassroots events offline, including 1,000 gatherings where supporters simply wear Obama buttons and do community service in their neighborhoods.
  
• While young participants are active, the majority of users, according to the site's administrator, appear to be middle-aged women.
• They use text messages to mobilise people on the night of big events.

It's an interesting balance between centralising and de-centralising a campaign.

webs ads, time-based activism

I was just checking out the Daily Kos for results of the New Hampshire primaries, when my eye wandered to one of their premium ad spots. The ad is about closing Guantanamo Bay, paid for by the American Civil Liberties Union.

First of all, kudos to ACLU for great timing. Loads of politically-engaged, liberal-thinking people are going to drop in to the Daily Kos during such an important event in the presidential election cycle. They're a primary audience that is often forgotten or deliberately ignored because organisations often think that they're already on board. But I don't think that necessarily are. There's heaps of issues out there and it can be taken for granted that engaged people care (or know) about yours.

All kinds of journalists, bloggers and media will also be checking in -- so that's another good audience to reach.

I clicked on the ad and went through to the ACLU website. It went straight to the campaign page -- it's a simple thing, but it's surprising how often organisations get it wrong -- which has information about the Close Guantanamo Bay day of action events and how people can get involved.

I really like the time-based activism. They've broken it up into 1, 5 and 15 minute activities. Just right for people who are time-poor -- which is probably most of us. There's nothing particularly inventive in the activities you can do there, but it's a good range. I like the 'ask me why I'm wearing orange' poster to stick up at work (or wherever) when you wear orange on the day of action.