What does it take to get Gen Y invested in a global crisis involving the abduction of thousands of children and their subsequent conversion into soldiers and sex slaves? Branding and celebrity endorsements, of course.
This is not an attack on the STOP KONY movement or the unprecedented support the campaign has inspired. I doubt neither the authenticity of the cause nor its supporters. But, what presents a new high for social awareness exposes a new low for my generation: the most viral video in history owes its success to social media and celebrities.
Reaching over 100 million views in two weeks and dominating the virtual worlds of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, the STOP KONY Campaign speaks volumes about how we communicate, but it’s not saying anything good. Although it is groundbreaking that millions of people have been united by a common cause, they weren’t lead there by global awareness or empathy, but by the delivery service of social media and the presumptuous pull of celebrities.
It would have been near impossible to miss the STOP KONY video if you were anywhere near the internet during the month of March, and even harder to ignore its message.
How did this video become viral so quickly? The Invisible Children selected 20 “Culture Makers” to endorse and promote the cause. The list ranges from Gates to Gaga, Bono to Bieber. A range of celebrities who combined audience covers nearly every media niche. The culture makers updated their social media sites with links to the video and pleas to repost. It worked as planned, and the video had millions of views with hours, and 100 million in a few weeks. People listened.
From the get-go, the video captures its audience with slick production and a heartfelt story. The plot involves an innocent toddler slowly learning about Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a group of Ugandan children telling their stories, and a bunch of young adults, like you and I, taking a stand. Emotion-provoking songs by upcoming artists fill the background noise and it ends with a strong call-to-action.
But, the call-to-action is asking the viewer to contribute by buying an “Action Kit,” which contains posters, a t-shirt, stickers, and a bracelet. Everything is nicely designed, trendy, and loudly promotes the cause. Buying this kit and sporting its contents is pretty much the extent of your support. All you have to do is buy and wear, the money going to Invisible Children to find Kony and rebuild the lives of the Ugandans affected. This message speaks loud and clear to Generation Y, who gets to feel the satisfaction of making a difference without exerting any tangential effort.
With the rate at which the video spread, it’s unlikely many people did much research before reposting, meaning they validated its truthfulness by the celebrity supporters and sheer number of hits. The new connectivity permitted by social media allows a message to spread quickly, but without any valor. The difference of being in the know or not is a matter of clicks, not a pursuit. But more awareness, in terms of numbers, is not necessarily an advantage. With large numbers comes a diffusion of responsibility. The more people that know about a particular misfortune, the less each individual feels the need to take action. Thinking “someone else will do it,” they justify their passive attitude and simply share the video. The “awareness” reached by social media may in fact be a detrimental paradox.
External factors grabbed the audience, with empathy coming second. In a globally aware and humanitarian society, people would have already been concerned with this ongoing tragedy and been inspired to help by the empathy born from sharing the human experience. Instead, the millions of supporters were initially attracted by celebrities, and drawn in further by a video difficult for anyone with a conscious to disregard. What about the misfortunes without an eye-catching brand identity and celebrity endorsers? Should they take the backseat due to lack of appeal?
The people behind the campaign really know how to make us tick. They seem to have a better idea of how to influence the masses than the government. Using tools proved effective by social psychology such as good design, groupthink, a loud call to action, and clear instructions to reach the goal, the STOP KONY movement was ingeniously devised. It might even be one of the most influential campaigns since Nazi Propaganda.
I think you bring up some good points about Gen Y's reaction to the video and take an interesting position on the controversy over the Kony 2012 documentary. From my perspective I think its interesting to examine that as you said "the people behind the campaign really know how to make us tick" and how that knowledge is effecting their impact. There is no argument that Kony is a horrible man and that Uganda deserves justice, but rather if Invisible Children is actually helping the issue. I personally know someone deeply involved with the organization and the Kony 2012 campaign and I believe they believe they are making a difference but I question the motives of those with power in the organization - specifically in recent times.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree with your analysis of the video's asthetics and unprecedented viral nature, I feel this is a sinicle take on an obvious trend. What this really shows us is powerful ability of Social Media and the Internet to bring world crisis' to center stage. Gen Y communicates via the web, therefore the vehicle in which one would want to reach out to us is inevitably going to be, you guessed it, the web. I view this phenomena as signal to anyone advocating for a global atrocity or humanitarian disaster, get your message out and we will resopnd. It is not difficult to make a pithy, heart-felt video. Kony is on of the first of many to find it's cause realized through social media.
ReplyDeleteI find the most interesting part of the video is how much of an emotional response people had with it and how passionate people "thought" they felt. I'm going to be 100% truthful and boldly state that I didn't fall for it. Now now I'm not saying I'm some apathetic sadistic individual; rather, I just have a short attention span and got bored of the video. Regardless, I still find it astonishing how everyone else spread the word on Facebook with status updates like, "I can't believe the madness that goes on in Africa." For the first few days it spread like a wildfire.
ReplyDeleteThen, after more intellectual people discovered the negative issues about the Kony campaign, everyone started to spread on Facebook, "Kony campaign is illegitimate, don't fall for their lies!"
I dunno, but to me it was just interesting to see how easily swayed everyone is and then about passionate they are about announcing what is on their mind. ...like anyone else really cares what they have to say.
When I first saw the video it was hard for me to believe everything that was in it. Yes, it was awesome film work and it was edited with a purposefully emotional tone. But I was already thinking about the back story. Who were the Invisible Children leaders? Where do they get their money from? Is this all a hoax? I don't think many people from our generation thought about those questions before sharing the video on their Facebook wall or tweeting it on Twitter. I think you're right about this being a new low for generation Y. I think I saw more posts about this than some more serious topics in 2011 and 2012.
ReplyDeleteThe celebrity aspect of social media has its pros and cons. The negative, as you mentioned, is if people accept at face value what their idols are posting. The positive though is that celebrities can truly employ their power to raise awareness and not just their upcoming movie premier. I think celebrities do a lot more than good when they become the face of advertising campaigns that help raise awareness. It is hard to watch a commercial for a cause that a celebrity is promoting and not wonder if there are any ulterior motives behind their presence, like a fat check. But certainly they considered this before doing those promotional deals and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their motives. Yes, people should be more informed and we can only hope that they will be able to do so on their own means and not because their favorite pop star led them there, but the question that I want to pose is, does it really hurt that these celebrities are raising awareness?
ReplyDeleteBecause we are so connected to the online world I think it was a the obvious thing for the producers to make this video and expect it to go viral. It was something that gained the attention of many people, because of the emotional ways in which it projected the topic. However, I don't know how much of it is an honest attempt to stop something this horrific. I do believe that it was most probably done to mainly get the attention and gain some celebrity status, although I know that the director claimed his intentions were pure.
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