Barbie’s scandalous rainforest destruction habit revealed!

I’ve signed into so many e-alerts and other e-bulletins that I can’t (obviously) read them all. But there are some titles that can’t just be ignored! I clicked on the ‘‘Barbie’s scandalous rainforest destruction habit revealed!’’ Greenpeace e-bulletin title and discovered what I think is one of the most exciting and fun campaigns ever!

Ken and Barbie, iconic couple being used as the main drive of a not-really-appealing environmental campaign…  The problem: critical wildlife habitat and carbon-rich rainforests and peatlands are being wrecked by Indonesia's most notorious rainforest destroyer Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) despite the dire consequences for the climate, endangered animals like the Sumatran tiger, and local communities.

Yeah kinda hard to mobilise around… but!

Greenpeace found out that Mattel, the manufacturer of Barbie, is using paper packaging from Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) to wrap the world's most famous doll.

Thus Greenpeace calls on Mattel to immediately stop using APP products that causes the lost of priceless rainforest and animal habitat.

The fun and creative part of the campaign is that Greenpeace is not frontally attacking Mattel but is ''using'' Ken to denounce the outrageous Barbie’s habit in wrapping herself in destroyed rainforest!

The campaign was launched by a breaking news announcing that a rainforest scandal has just broken up one of the world's most iconic couples, as it has been revealed that Barbie, the world's most famous doll, has been wrapping herself in cheap, throw-away packaging that endangers animals and habitats in Asia. This revelation has led Barbie's longtime beau Ken to announce publicly that he "doesn't date girls who are into deforestation."  The video (see below) has registered 200,000 views within a week.

After the chocking news, Ken broke up but also ''took action'' and used his Facebook page (Greenpeace official page) to call on people to ‘‘dislike’’ his ex and to send emails of protest to Mattel’s CEO.

Soon after the campaign launch, Greenpeace members performed one of their high impact direct actions at Mattel’s headquarters in California, hanging a huge banner featuring a sad-looking Ken doll and the message, “Barbie, it’s over. I don’t date girls that are into deforestation.” (see video below)

In order to keep people follow up on the campaign, Greenpeace created Ken and Barbie twitter accounts making the couple exchange tweets reinforcing Ken’s message of disappointment about Barbie scandalous habit of wrapping herself in cheap, throw-away packaging that cause the lost of rainforest and animal habitat.

After the KitKat (Netslé) campaigns, Greenpeace is showing once again it’s know-how in campaigning and is demonstrating that campaigns have more chance to succeed when based on focused and realistic objectives.

Grève de la faim : moyen de lutte ou acte désespéré ?

Les grévistes dits de la faim en refusant de s’alimenter, cherchent à alerter l’opinion publique et à provoquer une compassion massive capable d’infléchir les positions des responsables désignés de l’injustice subie. Toute communication et négociation étant devenues vaines, il est question d’infléchir la situation par une conduite extrême.

La grève de la faim, forme d’action non violente appelée jeûne politique ou encore jeûne de protestation est initiée et rendue populaire entre autres par Gandhi qui a usé de ce moyen dans sa lutte pour l’indépendance de l’Inde.

Toutefois il convient de distinguer la grève de la faim limitée de celle illimitée car ces deux ne poursuivent pas les mêmes objectifs.

La grève de la faim limitée est une méthode d'interpellation de l'opinion et des pouvoirs publics qui vise à dénoncer ouvertement une situation d'injustice. Il s'agit d'un moyen de conscientisation et non de contrainte.

A l’inverse, les grévistes de la faim illimitée au delà de la protestation et de la sensibilisation de l'opinion publique affirment leur détermination à poursuivre jusqu'à ce qu'ils aient obtenu gain de cause. Ils déclarent l'état d'urgence en risquant leur propre vie.

Ainsi, si une grève de la faim illimitée est entreprise pour un objectif hors de portée, elle ne serait qu'un geste de protestation désespéré et désespérant. Dans ces situations, les grévistes mettent un terme à leur projet avant que n'arrive l'irréparable et doivent reconnaître leur échec.

C’est le cas  de l’opposant Sénégalais Talla Sylla, qui avait entamé une grève de la faim illimitée pour contraindre le Président de la République à démettre son Premier Ministre et à mettre sur pied un gouvernement d’Union Nationale. Geste que les Sénégalais avaient jugés admirable mais non moins déraisonnable. Il s’en ait suivi un appel de certaines figures de la société civile, des milieux politique et religieux au renoncement de cette action périlleuse dont l’issue, s’il obstinait lui serait certainement fatale.

Du simple citoyen aux acteurs politiques en passant par les leaders d’opinion, la grève de la faim est devenue un grand classique. Au Sénégal, elle semble être à la mode depuis un certain moment au point de devenir banal. En effet des grèves de la faim tous azimuts, ont fini de donner une impression d’effet mode et ont dépouillé ce geste de tout son symbole et de son bien fondé.

Des étudiants qui n’arrivent pas s’inscrire à l’université aux élus locaux  qui exigent l’abandon d’un projet de découpage administratif de leur communauté rurale en passant par les travailleurs d’un hôtel de la place qui accusent leur Directeur de mauvaise gestion ; les Sénégalais usent et abusent de ce moyen pour se faire ‘‘entendre’’.

La dernière en date concerne les ex travailleurs de la Srg Icotaf. Au nombre de 20, ces ex travailleurs observent une diète depuis ce lundi 27 juin 2011. Ils réclament des arriérés de salaire. Le porte-parole des grévistes assure que ‘‘cette grève sera poursuivie tant qu’il n’auront pas satisfaction. Nous vivons un véritable calvaire dans le mutisme total des autorités. Nous avons mesuré tous les risques, mais l’heure est grave.’’

La Sénatrice et ex Directrice de la société Srg Icotaf, Oumou Salamata Tall, a démenti, devoir de l’argent à ces travailleurs…

On connaît la suite : une médiation afin de ‘‘convaincre’’ les grévistes de la faim à abandonner au nom de la religion – qui condamne le suicide - et du bon sens en échange non de la satisfaction de leur revendication mais de promesses sans aucune forme de garantie.

Un objectif hors de portée, un manque de pertinence de la revendication, une incapacité à générer du soutien, une dégradation de leur état de santé (pour ceux qui ne sont pas préparés à mourir) sont autant d’éléments qui poussent les grévistes de la faim au renoncement.

Comme dans toute autre action non-violente, c'est la réaction de l'opinion publique qui conditionne la réussite ou l'échec de la grève de la faim. L'épreuve de force ne se joue pas tant entre les grévistes et les responsables désignés de l’injustice mais entre ces derniers et l'opinion publique mobilisée à cet effet.

Si elles arrivent parfois à générer de la compassion voir de la solidarité, dans la plupart des cas les grèves de la faim se soldent par un échec. Dès lors, il est important d’étudier toutes les autres options possibles avant de prendre une telle décision, d’évaluer les chances de réussite et enfin, au cas où décision est prise de mener une grève de la faim, se doter d’une bonne stratégie de communication et de mobilisation afin d’engendrer un maximum de soutien de sorte à disposer d’un pouvoir de négociation et obtenir au pire des cas quelques concessions.

Faty Kane

Being noticed and Being heard

From the way the receptionist answers the phone to the way we organise events, from the design of our office to the quality of our publications, from the atmosphere at work to our engagement with external actors, we are in a constant process of communication.

Communication can be seen as a compound mosaic of impressions and information received from many sources. Whether intended as communication or not, everything we do, say or produce as an individual, a group of people, an organisation or even a whole community – and anything said about us - will be added to this mental mosaic.

To have a clear mosaic we need to agree on who and what we are. Then the challenge is to say, act and behave in coherence with the way we want others to see us. Everything we say and do should thus reflect as much as possible our organisation’s attributes, personality (‘enthusiastic’, ‘inspirational’, ‘leading’), character (‘forward looking’, ‘free spirited’) and core values (‘accountable’, ‘transparent’).

But forming a perfect mosaic is not enough, we need to be recognised and stick in people’s mind – in a good way, of course. And since we work for society rather than for ourselves, we need them to know us, to understand what we do, to get our messages across and inspire them enough to engage with us whenever we need.

This exercise goes beyond “sending information”, “delivering messages” or “circulating press releases”. In doing this we tend to stand at one side of a wall and throw messages over to the other, targeting our missiles and asking our audience to passively receive them. But instead of just informing our audience, we need to actively communicate with them.

Communicating involves interaction and should be an instrument for change, not just a way to publicize an opinion. It should go beyond a technical process to simply reflect the views of the sender, and instead provoke a transformational conversation with society that helps it rethink its values and beliefs.

Interaction, however, requires understanding that not everyone thinks like us. Most of the time, for example, we tend to expect a reaction of compassion or anger when an audience is exposed to outrageous figures such as:

§  75 millions of children are out of school worldwide…

§  About 900 millions go to bed hungry everyday…

§  HIV/AIDS, tuberculoses and malaria kill 6 millions people per year…

We are shocked when these “killer facts” leave the others indifferent, and assume that those in front of us are simply ignorant or heartless, or both.

But this is our fault, not theirs. We spend too little time trying to understand the motivations and needs of our various audiences. If someone does not want to receive a message, they will not receive it. Communication efforts are more also likely to impact with repetition, volume and broad geographical reach - not through one missile shot or occasional actions.

Communication is multi-dimensional and, above all, is about people – in all their complexities. It should address all elements of human understanding and decision making, from the political to the emotional, the economic to the psychological, the spiritual to the scientific. We don’t engage in a cause to reduce a statistic, but to change someone’s life.

When Joseph Stalin, one of the worst dictators, said: “a single death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic”, he was conveying a grisly truth. Whilst we need facts and figures to convey the scope of a tragedy, we need a name, a face and a story to connect with it.

The challenge of good communications, therefore, is about creating that mental mosaic, but is much more than that still. It is about being interesting enough to be worth noticing, coherent enough to be clear, and open enough to be part of a conversation. It is about looking good and making sense, being noticed and being heard. 




Faty.

Campaigning - A Love story

Who has never fallen in love? 

At least once in your life you’ve had to look twice at a face that struck you with such beauty, before realising that you’ve already started thinking about seeing it again… You saw “The One”. And depending on how much you wanted your dream to come true, you started strategising about the best way to succeed. Didn’t you?

Imagine it happens to you again…

You are sitting in front of ”The One”. Staring at them. Smiling at them. You are thinking about the best way to make your move. Let’s agree that ‘‘making your move’’ does not necessarily mean walking towards their seat right away. Hell no! Maybe you know people that know people that know people that know ‘‘The One”. In this case the best option could be to hold on and wait for a better opportunity… We trust you’ll take the time to plan your approach meticulously.

Look at the bigger picture

‘‘The One” won’t be able to guess how generous, sweet and funny you are unless you let them know. Be YOU. Don’t cheat about who you are. Be coherent and consistent. Be proactive, flexible and adapt your plans by exploiting opportunities that may arise along the way. Don’t leave things to chance. Minimise any potential risks and make sure you deliver on your plans. Find the right answers to the following questions: What do you have to offer? What will it take for them to say yes?

Find out what makes them tick…

So you are dying to meet ‘‘The One’’ again… with a clear goal that is winning ‘‘their heart. At this stage information is key. The more you know, the more you increase your chances of success. Find out who ‘‘The One” really is, what they like and what they don’t, what their favourite ice cream flavour is, their favourite night club, their preferred perfume, and if they like sushi or not before proposing a restaurant. The quality of your research is what will make the difference…

Hey, be interesting…!

You’re almost certainly not the only person interested in ‘‘The One”; others may have other good reasons to look at them too. This is where the challenge lies… What is it you can do to grab their attention, to be the one they pick out from the crowd?

Depending on the nature of your target - here ‘‘The One” – there are many tactics you can use. You can choose to act discretely, privileging one to one meetings with “close” friends who have an influence on your target - people they listen to. Or if they’re playing hard to get make as much noise as possible! Mobilise your friends, activate your phone book, and put pressure on them. Here the most important thing is ACTION. You need to keep the pressure on. You need to be doing things, not just sitting down and talking about your dream, hoping to win sympathy for your goal. This could work at the beginning but you’re sympathisers wont stay sympathetic for long.

Where you at?

Now you know more about ‘‘The One”, you have a clear plan, you have analysed their circle of influence and you have identified your potential allies and rivals. You have elaborated your communication strategy (what you want tell them, how, where and by who if not you), you have taken the time to fully brief your allies, and you have answers to the following questions: Are you on track or not? What do you have in reserve in terms of resources? What are the next steps? Having done all of this, you are in a better position to keep going until you achieve your goal...

Well 

… just as you have strategized to win “The One’s” heart, just as politicians have strategized to win our votes, and just the US marines have strategized to attack Iraq (not a great example, admittedly), we campaigners do the same to influence opinions, support a cause or make decisions makers take the decisions we believe are right. It could be campaigning for free health care, campaigning against racism, or campaigning for more jobs – it’s all campaigning.

What does it take to be a good campaigner?

Whatever political, social or cultural domain a campaigner evolves in, there are a number things they have to do. They have to know what they want (clear objectives and demand), build solid arguments through research and fact-finding, know how to get the message across (a good communication plan and skills), and be clear about how to get what they want (a good choice of tactics, where to get it from (a power analysis), who to ally with (an interest analysis), and how much time and resource they can put into it.

What a ‘‘non-campaigner’’ may have no idea about

Communication and popular mobilisation are usually what sticks in the mind when people think of campaigning. Maybe including you? Unfortunately most people think that it’s only about ‘‘making noise’’. The same way ‘‘The One” has no idea about what you have been through to get to them.  The same way many people have no idea about all the work behind developing and running a campaign. Campaigning requires a set of tools and skills from various domains including PR, press relations, social communication, research, oral and writing communication skills, to name a few.

But remember, it’s about your heart as well as your head…

Just as in campaigning for love, campaigning for social change can’t all be about plans, strategies and research. It’s about your passion, your creativity, your ability to speak the truth. Before you act you have to believe. Before you succeed you have to care.


Faty.

It's great to see that the Campaigning for Love concept inspired many of you on the way you approach and talk about campaigning. The idea has now formed the basis of a new campaign booklet called No Voodoo Required, launched recently by campaigns agency Niyel.