Yesterday, I watched the KONY 2012 video for the first time. It’s twenty-nine uninterrupted minutes of pure empowerment, quality editing, and pathos-fueled passion. I was moved. I was curious. I clicked refresh, and saw that the video had been viewed 3,000,000 more times in that half an hour. That number, as I’m sure you’re aware, is now at over 40 million.
I will let you make your own decisions about the merits of KONY 2012 and of the Invisible Children organization. (No one is trying to say that Kony is an alright guy, but I appreciate that points of contention do exist.) But above all of this, I think our entire industry should raise their glasses and salute Jason Russell and the rest of the team behind KONY 2012. They raised the bar on this one. They created something impactful and urged 40 million people to create grassroot hysteria over a cause few had even heard of this time last week.
THIS is a social media phenomenon. The execution of branding is impeccable; the passion behind the frenzy is undeniable. This is a new caliber of outreach and activism and public relations and creative marketing. Through street art and shared YouTube videos, we have been offered a restored faith in the power and goodness of humankind. Kony is well-recognized already, and it’s not even been a week. The goal was to make him infamous and it has happened; that goal has been reached. A social experiment, indeed.
Katherine Timm
Director of Business Development|
MOOD: Moved
