Last week, Aaron Lee (@askaaronlee) blogged about Ben & Jerry’s World Fair Trade Day Campaign.
The campaign, called Fair Tweets, calls for tweeters to donate their unused characters per tweet. In simpler terms, when a tweet falls short of 140 characters, you allow Fair Tweets to append their message in order to raise awareness about Fair Trade.
The problem I had is that the average Twitter user would be confused. Learning about what Fair Trade actually is (to decide if you want to jump on the bandwagon) requires some reading. Unfortunately, the textual content of the campaign isn’t written to immediately inspire someone to take action, because first you have to explain what “donating unused characters” actually means.
I eventually found this video, which explains it all in just one minute:
Can’t see the video? Launch it via YouTube.
That being said (and shown), I have to wonder how one determines the best methods for raising awareness for great causes. There are many ways to get the word out, but which ones garner the greatest response? And, how fine (or thick) is the line between being entertaining (like last year’s “What color bra are you wearing?” campaign, which, in my opinion, did little to raise awareness about breast cancer) and actually teaching people. Campaigns need to inspire people to spread the word, but also insprie them to take real action.
Have you developed a successful awareness campaign? Is there a particular campaign that stands out?
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