On Tuesday, I received my daily email newsletter from the Social Media Club and something really caught my eye.
The American Red Cross recently launched a new Fire Awareness Campaign, and what they are doing truly makes an impact. With this campaign, Every 80 Seconds, once you connect through your Facebook account, six random photos from your profile are burned right in front of your eyes. Watching your memories burn away right in front of your eyes truly brings to light how your life can change in an instant.
How would you feel if all your memories were just gone – all your personal belongings, everything that meant so much to you?
This campaign makes you think about those things, and while it is something we never want to think about, it is something we absolutely need to. This campaign is not your average campaign, asking you to make a donation for help a worthy cause. This campaign hits you hard and does an amazing job of making such a potentially awful occurrence personal and imaginable. It immerses you in the situation, and prompts you to take action.
There is a ton of advertising out there for so many causes, and they usually show you a patient in need of a transplant, a victim of an earthquake, someone that has no where to live, and other victims to whom you have no direct ties. While these campaigns touch our hearts, they are all happening to someone else, not us. What this campaign does is make you the victim. It puts you in the shoes of a victim and makes you feel the real emotions behind such a loss.
We always sympathize with people, but it is hard to truly understand what they are going through until you’ve been in their spot and experienced what they have. This social media campaign does just that. The idea is a great one, and I am sure the Red Cross will see a lot of good things come from it.
What other social media campaigns can you think of that really made you think?
For more information about the Red Cross and what you can do to help, visit their website (redcross.org).