We did not have to wait long for this decade’s first calamity… I was wondering in my previous piece what was in store for all of us and boom, the Haiti earthquake hit that poor country so hard!! I lived there for a year in 1995-96, which was probably the best period the country enjoyed in a very long time, i.e. shortly after former President Aristide came back from exile and when there was a high level of optimism about the country’s future. But the increasingly seemingly undemocratic way Aristide ruled the country, his reluctance to leave power, his eventual “exile”, and a continued political instability and economic hardship made the last 10 years tough on the country and left it even less prepared to deal with today’s disaster.
It is just terribly sad to see the pictures of places and neighborhoods I knew well that look all but totally destroyed – it is all the more chilling to have been in these areas and see now that what’s left of them is rubbles and chaos.
Fundraising has been quick to get organized. In particular, the option offered by the Red Cross to send a $10 donation by SMS ($10 is then added to your next phone bill) is very smart and has worked extremely well in the US. Yahoo has a direct link to Network for Good’s web site / blog that has sorted out and listed the NGOs active in Haiti and Google has set up a Crisis Response page featuring a number of organizations that are involved in the relief efforts as well making it possible to post messages (searching for missing folks or providing information) and to use Google Voice for free for 2 weeks for calls to Haiti.
I will be back later with more thoughts on the aftermath of the Earthquake.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
I am no psychic…
I celebrated the end of the decade by falling asleep at 11pm watching a movie and my wife woke me up at midnight… Makes me wonder how I am going to finish this decade - if I am still around then…
I have to say that the past decade started pretty well since I was on the Washington Mall near the Lincoln Memorial all jazzed up about the fireworks and the new Millennium (where did the collective excitement go by the way?). And then came September 11 and the burst of the internet bubble and in an interesting symmetry, those ten years ended with a global financial crisis that put our whole system on the edge of the precipice and with a failed terrorism attempt on a flight bound to the US from Amsterdam last Christmas Day.
I have certainly no psychic talents, so why should I be any good at foreseeing what History has in store for us? But yes, strangely enough, every decade I am just surprised by what happens – stuff that seems to come from left field… In the 70s there was that terrorism in Europe (I lived in Paris as a kid) - but friends and readers, I am not that old, I was not pondering in December 1969 about what might happen in the 70s… Rather I did not want to go to school and I was puking every day, but that’s another story.
If I had been told at the end of the 70s that the Soviet Giant would crumble and collapse and the Berlin Wall would fall, I would have laughed. If ten years later someone had told me that there would be two massive genocides in the 90s, in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia and the international community would be sitting idle (including myself) doing nothing, I would not have laughed but probably banged my head against the wall, wondering how that could be possible after the Holocaust in WWII – my generation grew up with this “Never Again” thing in mind. Did not have much of an effect, did it?
Same tune – end of the 90s, I probably would have disagreed with the assertion that Islamic fundamentalism was going to become the major threat to the Western world – probably out of idealism and naïveté and also because I did not share the political agenda of those who were saying so at the time (because there were some). As to the global crisis, there had been those big systemic crises in Southeast Asia, Russia, and Mexico in the 90s but Western countries seemed far from those excesses – we believed we knew better I guess. Yeah right!!
So, what now? Don’t ask me, I have no idea. But let’s all try to have fun, be happy, and continue whatever little things we all do to make this world a better place.
I have to say that the past decade started pretty well since I was on the Washington Mall near the Lincoln Memorial all jazzed up about the fireworks and the new Millennium (where did the collective excitement go by the way?). And then came September 11 and the burst of the internet bubble and in an interesting symmetry, those ten years ended with a global financial crisis that put our whole system on the edge of the precipice and with a failed terrorism attempt on a flight bound to the US from Amsterdam last Christmas Day.
I have certainly no psychic talents, so why should I be any good at foreseeing what History has in store for us? But yes, strangely enough, every decade I am just surprised by what happens – stuff that seems to come from left field… In the 70s there was that terrorism in Europe (I lived in Paris as a kid) - but friends and readers, I am not that old, I was not pondering in December 1969 about what might happen in the 70s… Rather I did not want to go to school and I was puking every day, but that’s another story.
If I had been told at the end of the 70s that the Soviet Giant would crumble and collapse and the Berlin Wall would fall, I would have laughed. If ten years later someone had told me that there would be two massive genocides in the 90s, in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia and the international community would be sitting idle (including myself) doing nothing, I would not have laughed but probably banged my head against the wall, wondering how that could be possible after the Holocaust in WWII – my generation grew up with this “Never Again” thing in mind. Did not have much of an effect, did it?
Same tune – end of the 90s, I probably would have disagreed with the assertion that Islamic fundamentalism was going to become the major threat to the Western world – probably out of idealism and naïveté and also because I did not share the political agenda of those who were saying so at the time (because there were some). As to the global crisis, there had been those big systemic crises in Southeast Asia, Russia, and Mexico in the 90s but Western countries seemed far from those excesses – we believed we knew better I guess. Yeah right!!
So, what now? Don’t ask me, I have no idea. But let’s all try to have fun, be happy, and continue whatever little things we all do to make this world a better place.
Happy 2010 - and some cool work in Madagascar
Happy New Year to everyone and all the best for 2010!! I was fortunate to be away for about 2 ½ weeks in December, escaping the cold weather that came to Boston suddenly and with a vengeance to work in Madagascar of all places on the evaluation of an organization called FAPBM (full name is in French) whose objective is to finance the country’s national park system over the long term. They set up a fund a few years ago that is invested on the financial markets (following a rather conservative investment strategy actually) and that will hopefully produce enough income to pay for part of those parks’ operating costs consistently in the future.
That financial mechanism has been quite effective in Latin America in particular (check the web site of the regional organization RedLAC), so the folks in Madagascar are not reinventing the wheel certainly. But 1) there is no similar success story in the Africa / Indian Ocean region (the Fund in Madagascar has been around since early 2005), and 2) some may have discovered Madagascar only when the cartoon was released (I did not see any lemurs by the way but I did see 2 crocodiles…) but you guys know that Madagascar is off the charts with respect to the biodiversity value of its environment. 80% of all species on the island are endemic, i.e. they are only found in Madagascar.
The thing is that the country was that close to just selling half of its forests to Korean humongous conglomerate Daewoo, is still very poor, and has been stuck in a political crisis for over a year now. So, you can imagine how high the stakes around FAPBM’s work are.
Most folks there - in government, the international community, the NGO sector, and the corporate world - realize that a compromise has to be found between a sustainable use of resources (which means that some extractive activity, i.e. mining and oil drilling, is going to be done within the boundaries of those parks) and the preservation of that amazing nature, all the more that whatever is lost will be mostly lost for good and forever – no other place where you can go find it…
These huge tensions are not unique to Madagascar – they are actually common in poor countries. But the country’s iconic nature and the people’s poverty just make those challenges even more pressing and complex.
I will write more about my impressions of that beautiful and interesting country. First time in that part of the world, I have to give you more than my (boring?) spiel on sustainable development…
That financial mechanism has been quite effective in Latin America in particular (check the web site of the regional organization RedLAC), so the folks in Madagascar are not reinventing the wheel certainly. But 1) there is no similar success story in the Africa / Indian Ocean region (the Fund in Madagascar has been around since early 2005), and 2) some may have discovered Madagascar only when the cartoon was released (I did not see any lemurs by the way but I did see 2 crocodiles…) but you guys know that Madagascar is off the charts with respect to the biodiversity value of its environment. 80% of all species on the island are endemic, i.e. they are only found in Madagascar.
The thing is that the country was that close to just selling half of its forests to Korean humongous conglomerate Daewoo, is still very poor, and has been stuck in a political crisis for over a year now. So, you can imagine how high the stakes around FAPBM’s work are.
Most folks there - in government, the international community, the NGO sector, and the corporate world - realize that a compromise has to be found between a sustainable use of resources (which means that some extractive activity, i.e. mining and oil drilling, is going to be done within the boundaries of those parks) and the preservation of that amazing nature, all the more that whatever is lost will be mostly lost for good and forever – no other place where you can go find it…
These huge tensions are not unique to Madagascar – they are actually common in poor countries. But the country’s iconic nature and the people’s poverty just make those challenges even more pressing and complex.
I will write more about my impressions of that beautiful and interesting country. First time in that part of the world, I have to give you more than my (boring?) spiel on sustainable development…
Friday, November 27, 2009
Amsterdam and Lille – Worlds Apart?
I just attended two conferences in Europe, in Amsterdam and Lille (Northern France), that were quite different from each other though there was significant overlap in the topics they covered. I first was in Amsterdam taking part in the European Venture Philanthropy Association’s (EVPA) annual conference that can be summarized as a large networking event (over 300 participants this year) and a substantive forum. This year, the emphasis was placed on social enterprise per se and how Venture Philanthropy (VP) actors (those with money in short) can effectively support social enterprises, be they for-profit companies or NGOs. The content was of uneven quality as is often the case. As one of the speakers said, venture philanthropy or EVPA for that matter is a very big church with multiple denominations. I don’t know whether the agnostics or atheists among us will be comfortable with the metaphor but it is true that a) the definition of what venture philanthropy is and how it should be done still varies quite widely, even as the concept has been around for over 10 years in the US and 7-8 years in Europe, and b) a lot of those who attend the event every year are somewhat parochial and seem to think that the way they do things is the only right way.
That slightly (sic) narrow-mindedness led one of the speakers to open a session on the use of equity or debt in venture philanthropy by making ludicrous statements on grant-making, i.e. grants inherently generate laziness and can’t be effective. The result was a discussion on the merits of grant-making, which was not the subject, and it took way too long for the actual topic to be addressed.
In another session, that one on the possible creation of a VP fund focusing on the arts, one moderator had thoroughly thought about the systemic obstacles that explain why no such fund has been created so far while the other one merely presented his organization, which had a good illustrative value but missed the broader point.
However, other sessions, for instance on best ways to scale a social enterprise or on Ireland’s Foundation One’s story since its inception, were filled with interesting lessons.
As always, the best part of that conference is in the networking per se. Over the years, an actual European VP community – though “multi-denominational” – has emerged and thus, catching up with colleagues and enjoying that sense of camaraderie is both pleasant and valuable. Also, everyone is very much focused on meeting others and the conference is structured to allow ample breaks for networking.
Lille was quite a stark departure from the Amsterdam Conference. The so-called World Forum on Sustainable Finance (is there an epidemic of World Forums? What’s up with the name?) revolved around sustainable finance. It was a mish-mash of economists, social sector practitioners, investors, and finance professionals from all horizons, and as much as EVPA folks represent a wide array of understanding of what VP is and/or should be, I can tell you that in contrast they form a very homogenous group compared to the people I heard or ran into in Lille.
The fundamental difference is that all EVPA folks are business people and bring that mentality to whatever philanthropic activities they have. This impacts their vision of the world, typically “I want to invest my money in order to produce tangible results”, and the way they convey it, i.e. very pragmatically and generally clearly and concisely.
In Lille, there was everything in terms of content, from crystal-clear powerpoint presentations to lengthy boring speeches that – good thing – got me to catch up on sleep (!!). The views of what sustainable finance means and how it should brought about differed also very widely. Thus, there was probably more richness and variety in Lille but the event as a result was a bit all over the place.
It is actually ironic, and probably telling, that everyone I talked to in Amsterdam to whom I said that I was on my way to Lille had not even heard of that World Forum…
Amsterdam and Lille, two worlds apart then?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
God Save Charlie’s – A few lessons Charlie’s teaches us
I had breakfast at Charlie’s in the South End the other day as we wanted to show this legendary diner to a young friend of ours who was in town for a few days. It was a worthy visit because not only did it delight my palate and senses but also it gave me some food for thought…
Charlie’s teaches us a thing or two about business. It is also the last symbolic bastion of the old South End in an ultra-gentrified neighborhood.
Charlie’s has been a staple in the South End for decades – it has found the formula for staying in business all these years: Consistency and Value… Consistency in their staff, quality of the food, and attention of the service. Charlie’s has been staffed and managed by the same 4 folks since the 70’s (two women and two men). Good people, very welcoming – they each have a different personality but just seem happy to be there. Prices are fine given the quality of the food and the huge portion size but the place is not cheap. You’ll order pancakes, or French toasts, or an omelet – order for two and coffee, you are looking at a $20 check. But Charlie’s offers excellent value: they serve the best French toasts I have ever eaten (and I am big and demanding on anything sweet) and thus, the “package” given the quality of the food and of the welcome is very compelling.
So, in short, a few simple lessons: provide consistent quality and value, know who you are and don’t change your personality (or corporate identity / DNA for that matter)…
Charlie’s is also one of the remnants of the old South End, i.e. the neighborhood as it was pre-gentrification. I am not going to romanticize that era – granted, it had a higher crime rate than today and a lot of the sections were just decrepit. There was much less activity all around and there was no such thing as “Restaurant Row” like today.
However, a sign that shows that the neighborhood has not only changed for the better is that Charlie’s $20 bill for an omelet and coffee for two seems actually dirt cheap compared to the neighborhood’s funky “eateries” (what a terrible word…) where you’ll have to pay about $15 just to get an order of pancakes or French toasts over brunch.
I also find it quite striking that we live in an actual state of de facto segregation in the South End today.
For those of you who don’t know the neighborhood, the South End has historically been the home of several housing projects. Since Boston is required by law to have at least 15% of its housing stock as social housing, the South End projects are not going anywhere. In the past 10-15 years, the folks who were paying market rate rents were priced out by inflation and moved further out and a lot of those who owned places cashed in and left.
As it was getting more hip and lively, the neighborhood kept attracting a younger, whiter, and wealthier crowd and that trend has not stopped. I’ve been in the South End for 5+ years now and disparities keep growing wider and wider.
I look around me and I sense that in most cases people of color look at white folks with mistrust and unease – and conversely.
Again, I don’t want to romanticize the old times but there is a consensus among the old-timers that the neighborhood had much more of a community feel in the 80’s and 90’s as folks loving the Victorian architecture or all the studio loft spaces that were available for almost nothing moved in.
I don’t sense any of this today. Most residents seem to care more about property values and new “eateries” and lounges than about their fellow neighbors.
How did we get there?
Gentrification of historic neighborhoods in downtown areas is not unique to Boston. The same has happened in a lot of big cities around the world, in the US and in Europe in particular. But this is where urban planning comes into play. It should be an essential goal of every large municipality to preserve the “social fabric” of its neighborhoods and do whatever is possible to maintain a representation of all levels of income.
By encouraging new construction or building conversions that only catered to the high end / luxury segment, the City of Boston has in my opinion failed its constituency and failed to make the downtown area a place that is lively and welcoming to everyone - where people from all walks of life feel equally comfortable.
Charlie’s teaches us a thing or two about business. It is also the last symbolic bastion of the old South End in an ultra-gentrified neighborhood.
Charlie’s has been a staple in the South End for decades – it has found the formula for staying in business all these years: Consistency and Value… Consistency in their staff, quality of the food, and attention of the service. Charlie’s has been staffed and managed by the same 4 folks since the 70’s (two women and two men). Good people, very welcoming – they each have a different personality but just seem happy to be there. Prices are fine given the quality of the food and the huge portion size but the place is not cheap. You’ll order pancakes, or French toasts, or an omelet – order for two and coffee, you are looking at a $20 check. But Charlie’s offers excellent value: they serve the best French toasts I have ever eaten (and I am big and demanding on anything sweet) and thus, the “package” given the quality of the food and of the welcome is very compelling.
So, in short, a few simple lessons: provide consistent quality and value, know who you are and don’t change your personality (or corporate identity / DNA for that matter)…
Charlie’s is also one of the remnants of the old South End, i.e. the neighborhood as it was pre-gentrification. I am not going to romanticize that era – granted, it had a higher crime rate than today and a lot of the sections were just decrepit. There was much less activity all around and there was no such thing as “Restaurant Row” like today.
However, a sign that shows that the neighborhood has not only changed for the better is that Charlie’s $20 bill for an omelet and coffee for two seems actually dirt cheap compared to the neighborhood’s funky “eateries” (what a terrible word…) where you’ll have to pay about $15 just to get an order of pancakes or French toasts over brunch.
I also find it quite striking that we live in an actual state of de facto segregation in the South End today.
For those of you who don’t know the neighborhood, the South End has historically been the home of several housing projects. Since Boston is required by law to have at least 15% of its housing stock as social housing, the South End projects are not going anywhere. In the past 10-15 years, the folks who were paying market rate rents were priced out by inflation and moved further out and a lot of those who owned places cashed in and left.
As it was getting more hip and lively, the neighborhood kept attracting a younger, whiter, and wealthier crowd and that trend has not stopped. I’ve been in the South End for 5+ years now and disparities keep growing wider and wider.
I look around me and I sense that in most cases people of color look at white folks with mistrust and unease – and conversely.
Again, I don’t want to romanticize the old times but there is a consensus among the old-timers that the neighborhood had much more of a community feel in the 80’s and 90’s as folks loving the Victorian architecture or all the studio loft spaces that were available for almost nothing moved in.
I don’t sense any of this today. Most residents seem to care more about property values and new “eateries” and lounges than about their fellow neighbors.
How did we get there?
Gentrification of historic neighborhoods in downtown areas is not unique to Boston. The same has happened in a lot of big cities around the world, in the US and in Europe in particular. But this is where urban planning comes into play. It should be an essential goal of every large municipality to preserve the “social fabric” of its neighborhoods and do whatever is possible to maintain a representation of all levels of income.
By encouraging new construction or building conversions that only catered to the high end / luxury segment, the City of Boston has in my opinion failed its constituency and failed to make the downtown area a place that is lively and welcoming to everyone - where people from all walks of life feel equally comfortable.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Nutella: Healthy Breakfast or Guilty Pleasure?
Nutella has been running a TV ad in the last couple of weeks that left me dumb-founded when I saw it recently. It basically said that Nutella is an essential part of a healthy breakfast for kids… In my head, Nutella has always been associated with guilty pleasure – at 541 calories for 100 grams (per the Nutella web site and its section on Nutrition Facts) and knowing that adults need between 2000 and 2500 calories per day to function properly (according to the USDA, the US Department of Agriculture), you’d better not feel guilty too much or too often…
1600 calories being the suggested daily intake for kids, 100 grams of Nutella and their 541 calories, that already 1/3 of what a kid needs in his or her everyday life.
Now, the folks at Nutella are smart, or scared of the outrage they could cause, or overly politically correct, or even health-conscious - or maybe all of the above... The commercial that shows a girl and a boy with their Mom at breakfast enjoying a few slices of bread with Nutella spread on them is cautious to say through the mother’s voice that “I [the mother] spread a little on all kinds of healthy things like multigrain toasts” (I put the italics). The text further adds that Nutella is made of “wholesome quality ingredients”, i.e. you don’t make your kids ingest garbage… The commercial ends with a glorious “breakfast never tasted this good”… Perfect, the “Holy Trinity” of foods, i.e. taste, quality of ingredients, and healthy nature of all. That’s a home run, Nutella – bravo, Signor Ferrero!!
It is interesting however to note that Nutella’s web site does not say anything about the 541 calories upfront – you have to dig up and find the page on Nutrition Facts where a Nutella jar label is displayed. And you are in luck only if you thought of taking your calculator with you or if the one in your cell phone has not been bugged by your GPS or something… You’ll see on the label that you’ll ingest 200 calories for 37 grams of Nutella (including 100 grams of fat…), i.e. 541 calories for 100 grams. Thank you, Mom – “I use Nutella to get my kids to eat healthy foods” says she in the commercial, yeah, right!!
If you genuinely care about nutrition for your kids, Nutella while not running away from the actual nutrition facts that are less glorious than its Holy Trinity commercial would suggest has you work pretty hard. The web site does mention “Food Pyramid and Guidelines” but only briefly. The Nutella folks have preferred to post a convenient external link to USDA’s MyPyramid’s web site, a tool explaining how to have a balanced diet.
So, alright, we get it… Nutella has a bunch of lawyers who told them how not to go overboard on the “kid targeting” craziness and thus avoid having obese young adults sue them for selling those guys breakfast that maybe tasted good but had them gulp down an insane amount of calories throughout their childhoods.
And targeting kids and their parents is a smart, sort of long-term strategy that helps Nutella build its brand equity over time to speak business language.
But if Nutella and Ferrero are as responsible as I am sure they claim to be, they’d better stop targeting our children and rather feel free to tempt us adults to succumb to guilty pleasures from time to time…
Leave our kids alone, Nutella people!!
1600 calories being the suggested daily intake for kids, 100 grams of Nutella and their 541 calories, that already 1/3 of what a kid needs in his or her everyday life.
Now, the folks at Nutella are smart, or scared of the outrage they could cause, or overly politically correct, or even health-conscious - or maybe all of the above... The commercial that shows a girl and a boy with their Mom at breakfast enjoying a few slices of bread with Nutella spread on them is cautious to say through the mother’s voice that “I [the mother] spread a little on all kinds of healthy things like multigrain toasts” (I put the italics). The text further adds that Nutella is made of “wholesome quality ingredients”, i.e. you don’t make your kids ingest garbage… The commercial ends with a glorious “breakfast never tasted this good”… Perfect, the “Holy Trinity” of foods, i.e. taste, quality of ingredients, and healthy nature of all. That’s a home run, Nutella – bravo, Signor Ferrero!!
It is interesting however to note that Nutella’s web site does not say anything about the 541 calories upfront – you have to dig up and find the page on Nutrition Facts where a Nutella jar label is displayed. And you are in luck only if you thought of taking your calculator with you or if the one in your cell phone has not been bugged by your GPS or something… You’ll see on the label that you’ll ingest 200 calories for 37 grams of Nutella (including 100 grams of fat…), i.e. 541 calories for 100 grams. Thank you, Mom – “I use Nutella to get my kids to eat healthy foods” says she in the commercial, yeah, right!!
If you genuinely care about nutrition for your kids, Nutella while not running away from the actual nutrition facts that are less glorious than its Holy Trinity commercial would suggest has you work pretty hard. The web site does mention “Food Pyramid and Guidelines” but only briefly. The Nutella folks have preferred to post a convenient external link to USDA’s MyPyramid’s web site, a tool explaining how to have a balanced diet.
So, alright, we get it… Nutella has a bunch of lawyers who told them how not to go overboard on the “kid targeting” craziness and thus avoid having obese young adults sue them for selling those guys breakfast that maybe tasted good but had them gulp down an insane amount of calories throughout their childhoods.
And targeting kids and their parents is a smart, sort of long-term strategy that helps Nutella build its brand equity over time to speak business language.
But if Nutella and Ferrero are as responsible as I am sure they claim to be, they’d better stop targeting our children and rather feel free to tempt us adults to succumb to guilty pleasures from time to time…
Leave our kids alone, Nutella people!!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
“Subliminal” Messages about Volunteerism?
I read last week about the main TV networks’ concerted efforts to promote volunteerism in their shows and programs vs. through Public Service Announcements (PSAs) as it is usually the case. The USA Today article gives some details about iParticipate, a multi-year campaign that is the brainchild of the Entertainment Industry Foundation and took place all of last week across major TV networks in the US.
The major difference with PSAs (the campaign includes straightforward PSAs as well) is that this time messages promoting volunteerism or community service were included in the shows’ actual story lines. The article points out that it was actually easy to convince show producers to come on board and there was none of the usual battle and nastiness between networks.
We’ll have to see what impact this initiative is going to have. I’d be curious to hear whether anyone noticed the “convergence” of messages with the same tone and content – this is quite unusual, isn’t it? A barrage of goodness… But obviously, if down the road more folks are inspired to get involved in their communities and give back, that will be all nice and good. We’ll be happy.
However, there are a couple of things that do not feel quite right here. First, I do have a slight problem with the fact that this initiative was conducted unbeknownst to most viewers (not everyone had a chance to read the USA Today article or visit the iParticipate web site). Would the message be as effective if viewers knew? Not sure. I feel a bit odd knowing that some message – however valuable – was fed (force-fed?) to viewers without proper warning with a view to influencing them. Who said manipulation?
Also, can’t we keep entertainment and good intentions separate? I understand that working on the story lines per se may be more effective than delivering straight PSAs with viewers. But this is a TV show – it’s entertainment!! Imagine my neighbor next door – it is Thursday night, she wants to watch a comedy show to relax. It is her downtime. She just wants to let her hair down. At that very moment, she may not care that much about saving the world or helping the needy – maybe she just does not want to think about it right then. When I watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition which is about generosity and the trickle down effect that being good to others creates, I want to be moved by these acts of generosity and gratefulness. I have fun watching the show and seeing the awesome houses built for those nice folks!! That is indeed entertainment but it is also my choice to watch Ty and his team bring happiness to others.
So, kudos to the entertainment industry (don’t like this picture on their web site by the way) but maybe we want to keep all the goodness blurb separate from our favorite shows’ story lines.
The major difference with PSAs (the campaign includes straightforward PSAs as well) is that this time messages promoting volunteerism or community service were included in the shows’ actual story lines. The article points out that it was actually easy to convince show producers to come on board and there was none of the usual battle and nastiness between networks.
We’ll have to see what impact this initiative is going to have. I’d be curious to hear whether anyone noticed the “convergence” of messages with the same tone and content – this is quite unusual, isn’t it? A barrage of goodness… But obviously, if down the road more folks are inspired to get involved in their communities and give back, that will be all nice and good. We’ll be happy.
However, there are a couple of things that do not feel quite right here. First, I do have a slight problem with the fact that this initiative was conducted unbeknownst to most viewers (not everyone had a chance to read the USA Today article or visit the iParticipate web site). Would the message be as effective if viewers knew? Not sure. I feel a bit odd knowing that some message – however valuable – was fed (force-fed?) to viewers without proper warning with a view to influencing them. Who said manipulation?
Also, can’t we keep entertainment and good intentions separate? I understand that working on the story lines per se may be more effective than delivering straight PSAs with viewers. But this is a TV show – it’s entertainment!! Imagine my neighbor next door – it is Thursday night, she wants to watch a comedy show to relax. It is her downtime. She just wants to let her hair down. At that very moment, she may not care that much about saving the world or helping the needy – maybe she just does not want to think about it right then. When I watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition which is about generosity and the trickle down effect that being good to others creates, I want to be moved by these acts of generosity and gratefulness. I have fun watching the show and seeing the awesome houses built for those nice folks!! That is indeed entertainment but it is also my choice to watch Ty and his team bring happiness to others.
So, kudos to the entertainment industry (don’t like this picture on their web site by the way) but maybe we want to keep all the goodness blurb separate from our favorite shows’ story lines.
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