The Tobin Tax has had something of a re-brand. And a very successful one too. The Facebook page has nearly 70, 000 fans and the promotional video has had nearly 100, 000 views.
For those unfamiliar with the Tobin / Robin Hood Tax it is a proposal for a tax of 0.05% on international bankers’ transactions. Supporters claim it could generate hundreds of billions of pounds every year which could be ploughed into international development and public services.
The above film goes on slightly too long but is gently amusing and quietly powerful. The key to increasing momentum will be to regularly release ever more entertaining and convincing content.
Putting together a good first video and getting launch publicity is relatively easy, but to turn warm public interest into genuine mass support, that will make politicians take notice, is incredibly hard.
‘Open Up’ is a new campaign that’s demanding that open primaries take place in every constituency in the country in advance of the next general election – fairly ambitious stuff given that it’s demanding a bunch of turkies vote for their own deselection.
The website is slick and the integration of social media channels is seamless, but the video content isn’t quite of the quality that will help make the campaign viral. The above clip ‘Are you a duck?’ tries to a poke some fun at and stir up some irritation about MP’s expenses in order to drive engagment and interest in the campaign. The concept of ‘tales from the duck house’ is amusing but dubbing a voice over a duck isn’t of the hilarity that justifies the 1 minute and 40 second length and follow-up episode.
The campaign seems to be building momentum but doesn’t yet seem to have ‘tipped’. However, everything seems to be in place to capitalise from either a new bout of Westminster scandals and / or the production of a genuninely interesting, viral piece of content.
The scale of the debate that Obama’s healthcare reform has sparked in this country is quite extraordinary. The social media campaign ’We (heart) the NHS’ has recieved a huge amount of support online as well as significant amounts of coverage in the mainstream media. The hashtag #welovethe nhs has become one of the top 6 trends on the global twitter site and is now trending at over 750 new Tweets every 5 seconds!
Above is a screen grab of a really nice widget created by Alex Smith (of labourlist) that pulls in all tweets using the hashtag #welovethenhs and publishes them on rotation. A simple idea, executed well that will sustain and spread the campaign even further.
Above is a photo from the press stunt that was held in Westiminster recently to further promote the Axe The Beer Tax campaign. This campaign is begining to pick up steam, with major brewers adding their weight with in-pub promotions and poster sites on the outside of breweries.
With the Chancellor’s budget report happening tomorrow, this campaign (and others across the political and issue spectrum) will be waiting with baited breath for some good news. Given the grave economic times, it is extremely unlikely that the beer tax will indeed be axed, but I doubt this will prevent Pinty and the gang having a few brews tomorrow after Darling’s speech!
I just attended The Age of Stupid premier at Shepherds Bush Vue. There was, as promised, a satellite link up to Leicester Square, a few speakers before and after the film and a general spirit of activism (mixed in with a fair dosage of depression) from the audience.
The event was unashamedly political, featuring the film’s Director apologising on behalf of London to Ken Livingston for electing Boris Johnson before hounding Ed Miliband and declaring a campaign objective to oust the Labour Government if a new coal fired power station is allowed to go ahead in Kent.
It’s definitely worth seeing and has created / joined a campaign that will doubtless be featured on these pages regularly in the run up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.
The above poster is part of a new campaign by Roger Helmer MEP to try and make euroscepticism more relevant to the masses. By moving away from arguments around sovereignty and towards dustbins he hopes to capture the popular zeitgeist. And if that doesn’t grab anyone’s attention, they’ve only gone and stuck a topless girl on it.
I think it’d have been funnier and more effective if they’d gone with a topless chap, with a big gut hanging out looking sorry for himself. The danger of going with something overtly sexy is that it takes away from your message; I couldn’t take my attention away from the provocative tattoo on the small of the model’s back. Next to something like that copy around electricity bills seems even more dull.
[My recent abscence has been due to attending a residential training week. We worked on a mock-pitch for The Metropolitan Police; they have tough communication problems made more difficult by recent issues surrounding percieved politicisation. No, we didn't win.]
Amnesty International are organising a social media flashmob today at 13:10, to highlight the fact that 1 in 10 women in Britain experience rape or violence. The social media campaign calls on supporters to:
“Spread this message via online communities such as Facebook, Myspace and TwitterTODAY. Get others to pass it on, raising awareness and inspiring action on this issue for International Women’s Day.”
I will be really interested to see the online activity stats around this and see if it leads to any action from political representatives.
I just got made aware of this fantastic widget produced by Apex Communications (part of Euro RSCG) for the Axe the Beer Tax campaign.
You enter the number of pints of beer you drink a week and click on the fruit machine lever to reveal on the fruit machines wheels how much tax you currently pay, per year, in beer tax. After another click on the lever it tells you how much you will pay if the government’s tax increases continue and finally, it encourages you to lobby your MP by clicking through to an online campaign postcard.
The widget looks brilliant, works well as a lobbying mechanic, can be easily shared and makes the campaign relevant to individuals in a fun, light-hearted but compelling way.
Gordon Brown has launched a campaign called “Real help now”. The above print has been running in national newspapers this week. The ‘Real help now’ campaign states its objectives as helping the British public through the recession.
The government advertising various measures that might help people through a recession is in itself, obviously, unproblematic. However, “real help now” is a slogan that Gordon Brown has been using regularly since the start of the economic difficulties and often as a rallying cry against what he has dubbed the “do nothing” Conservative Party.
To launch a government funded national campaign by the same / very similar slogan which you have been using to politically attack the Opposition sails VERY close to the proverbial propaganda wind.
