Time for me to anger both sides. The argument against the ice bucket challenge being a waste of water is silly. For someone to take up arms over the ice bucket challenge while taking a 20 min shower so they can pound the pud is the height of hypocrisy. Im also assuming youve never, in the history of ever, gotten your car washed. We live in one of the most wasteful countries on earth, and youre up in arms over a good cause? There is some validity, though, in thinking the social response has been absurd. Not because ALS itself isnt a worthy cause - it most certainly is - and theres no doubt the challenge has been effective. It isnt the slacktivist properties that leave a bad taste in my mouth - its the faux statements and faux activism. You could have presented to 1000 people the truth about ALS, and only a handful might have felt compelled to take action - but lo and behold, you create a social media campaign and give people an opportunity to make a video, post it on Facebook and pretend they give a shit, and the bleeding hearts came out of the woodwork. This type of slacktivism is a bit like holding your dollar bill in your hand and waiting until the barista is looking at you before you place it in the tip jar. Except, in this case you can just make a video of you doing something wholly inconsequential instead of giving the dollar bill. Yes, we get it, youre such a giving and wonderful human being. I mean - this must be the first time youve ever had your skin touch cold water. Its just so incredible that everyone can witness it as you thrust yourself on the sword in such a gallant display of selflessness. Hopefully youll find a way to channel your charity when people arent looking. Posturing is well and good, but it shouldnt be your primary motivating force - and it obviously is. What have you learned here? If youre running a non-profit and need to boost donations for dubious awareness campaigns - dont actually try to communicate the horrors and reality of your cause...pay someone to start a social media campaign where people can pretend to care. You know, because faking it is just as good as the real thing. Just ask your girlfriend. P.S. Most awareness campaigns are bullshit. The concept became prevalent by 501c3s who wanted to be able to expand their write offs or subsidization opportunities by piggy backing off things like 1st class mailings with advertisements...of course, they dont call them advertisements...in non-profit parlance, it falls under the auspices of awareness. How do you find ways to funnel money without running afoul of the IRS? It pays, literally, to create campaigns with almost no objective or measurable metric of success.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 00:35:58 +0000
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