blogging social change

How to promote a sustainable business

admin — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 18:56:24 +0000

My latest and greatest online discovery is Ask Metafilter, a subsection of Metafilter, which is an excellent online community blog. Anyone asks, and anyone answers. One of today’s questions is “Help me promote an environmentally conscious, socially responsible small business.” The responses refer to models from around the world, including:

Here in Toronto, there’s also the new Green Enterprise Toronto, which we wholeheartedly endorse. I appeared at last year’s GET forum as a guest speaker, and had the opportunity to meet a group of principled, focused businesspeople trying to work with a social conscience. Check them out.

From internet giant to microcredit

admin — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 13:54:38 +0000

The first people who took jobs at Google Inc. are a lucky bunch. Thanks to soaring stock options, 100 of the company’s first 300 employees quit their jobs and went on to all sorts of other things.

Olana Kahn became chief operating officer of Kiva.org, a San Francisco non-profit that provides small loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Kahn went from overseeing Google’s global sales to overseeing loans for such things as taco carts and beauty salon supplies – small investments that make a huge difference. According to Kahn, “it’s more of a challenge than Google ever was.”

Putting the Homeless in the garbage

admin — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:00:10 +0000

“Help, so that no one has to come here for food.” That’s the line in a new ad campaign, pasted on the underside of garbage pails in Portugal.

Reminds me of a campaign run by UNICEF, where they painted pails so the mouths of children formed the garbage pail openings. Effective.

How to pitch the media

admin — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:02:23 +0000

Three posts in one day? Wow. Don’t get too excited, this is an anomaly — the Internet has turned up a bevvy of post-worthy material today.

Inside the CBC blogger Tod Maffin has posted a short e-book called “How to Pitch the Media.” It’s blunt, short, and by all of my own experience — very accurate. The e-book is licensed under a Commons Licence, so share it around.

What are Human Rights? Ask Youth and a Scientologist.

admin — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 12:43:00 +0000

Youth for Human Rights International should get an award for sheer volume of ads for this “campaign” (in parenthesis because I’m not sure if it’s actually running anywhere). The group partnered with Church of Scientology International to create 30 public service announcements to “educate and inspire the world.” There’s also a supplementary booklet called “What are Human Rights?”

The production values are impressive, though the whole thing is overwhelmingly wholesome. Please, no Katie and Tom jokes — I don’t see an ad for the “Right to Silent Childbirth.”

More World Cup fever

admin — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 12:24:27 +0000

With slightly more than a month before the Homeless World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, teams from around the world are preparing to take their shot at international fame. Ringo Starr is an official endorser, and organizers say the event changes lives.

Some stats from the Homeless World Cup’s Social Impact Report (2005):

77% of players involved in the 2005 Homeless World Cup have changed their lives forever.
38% (80 players) have regular employment
40% (85 players) have improved their housing situation
12 players now make their living partly from football as coaches or players with professional and semi-professional teams

What you don’t know, can hurt your forehead.

admin — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 04:52:31 +0000

The American Obesity Task Force has a new spot with a simple message: “What you don’t know can hurt you.” Apparently, obesity puts you at a higher risk for heart disease — and having a fat person assault you in your driveway. Enjoy.

Google’s strategy for social impact.

mike — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:22:32 +0000

From slashdot: “Google.org, the charitable branch of Google, has hired on Dr. Larry Brilliant to create a strategy for making a ‘social impact.’ According to the article: ‘The network will focus its charitable endeavors on global poverty, energy, and the environment.’ Brilliant outlines his goal: ‘In 10 years, I’d like people to say Google changed the world less for its search engine than for the way in which it changed philanthropy to make the world a better place.’”

Brilliant.

Sex with bugs might not be good for you

admin — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

French anti-AIDS agency AIDES has launched a new campaign. This one features hot young men and women having sex with … well … bugs. We couldn’t find the ads on the AIDES website, but the two variants are available here and here. As always, they’re to the point, impactful, a little shocking, and beautifully executed. Nicely done.

Stop armies of ninjas … with one hand.

admin — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Can’t keep your kids from watching sex and violence? Feel helpless? A suggestion: try the remote. Or the “off” switch.

That’s the thrust of a new campaign from PauseParentPlay. The ads feature taglines like “”Suburban Mom Wipes Out Army of Bloodthirsty Ninja Assassins…with eject button on DVD player,” and directs readers to the organization’s website.