Introduction
As part of our global issues unit, we will learn about campaigns. A campaign is an organized course of action and strategic marketing to achieve positive change. The United Nations often uses campaigns to promote its goals and activities, as well as to inspire global citizens to contribute to various causes. This lesson introduces you to the positive and negative impact of campaigns, and will hopefully inspire you to create your own campaigns as part of the Q2 unit project.
Task
Please complete each section in the order listed. Before you begin, make sure that you recognize the following vocabulary words.
Vocabulary
Advocacy: supporting a particular cause or policy
Problematic: having difficult, troublesome, or unethical quality
Monetary Assistance: aid and help in the form of money
Ableism: a system that prioritizes able-bodied people and disregards the needs and dignity of disabled people
Infantilize: treating someone as a child or in a way which denies their maturity in age or experience
Implement: put (a decision, plan, agreement, etc.) into effect
Process
Part 1: Opening Discussion
1. Can you think of any marketing campaigns, political campaigns, advocacy campaigns, or social media campaigns that you’ve seen recently? What about these campaigns caught your attention? Were you motivated to take any concrete actions after being exposed to these campaigns, why or why not?
2. Which of the following mediums do you think is most effective and persuasive when trying to spread awareness of important global problems or motivate people to action: photographs, videos, written articles, speeches/TEDTalks, social media hashtags?
3. Awareness campaigns often rely on emotional appeals and personal stories to encourage empathy and inspire action. Do you think that using these sorts of emotional appeals or individual stories is always necessary to motivate action? Do you think these emotional elements could ever be problematic or manipulative, why or why not?
Part 2: Problematic Campaigns
Through various media campaigns, audiences are often presented with a one sided and oversimplified depictions of countries and people in developing countries. The narrative is often centered around unfortunate individuals in need of monetary assistance. This perpetuates a stereotypical perception of developing countries and reinforces a patronizing “savior” mind set in viewers. This can take on racist qualities when charity campaigns portray countries in the global South as needing “white saviors” to rescue their countries. It can also take on ableist qualities when the campaign infantilizes disabled people. People may need international aid or monetary assistance, but they still need to be respected as equal human beings.
Watch the following comedy skit, meant to raise awareness about problematic awareness and charity campaigns:
Answer the questions with your group.
1. What problematic practices or behaviors do you think this video is poking fun at?
2. Can you think of any other problematic elements in awareness or charity campaigns that you’ve seen in real life?
3. How can we avoid perpetuating stereotypes about people when creating campaigns for issues we care about?
Part 3: Review and Analyze a Real World Campaign
Please read the “#endviolence” and the “Journey of Love Myself” sections of the website. You are not required to read the rest of the website beyond these two pages.
Visit and read this web link: https://www.love-myself.org/eng/about-endviolence/
Visit and read this web link: https://www.love-myself.org/eng/journey-of-love-myself/
Watch this YouTube video:
Answer the following questions with your group.
1. This campaign partnership between BTS and UNICEF was very successful in raising large amounts of money for children at risk of violence. Why do you think this campaign succeeded in its goals? Consider the branding, the marketing, logos, slogans, the celebrity endorsement, and the various promotional activities.
2. Good campaigns rely on factual, emotional, and visual appeal. Can you identify any of these appeals in the Love Myself campaign? Why or why not do you think these appeals were effectively used?
3. Would this campaign motivate you personally to donate or take action? Why or why not?
4. Is there anything that you would change or improve about this campaign if you were responsible for its management and implementation?
Evaluation
Please complete the quiz at this link when you are done reviewing the content in the process section: https://forms.gle/ZnewEW5cnR7PLpZV6
Conclusion
If you have completed the quiz in the evaluation section, discuss the following questions with your group.
1. This quarter you will work with a partner to design a global campaign to promote one of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. What are the top 3 goals that you might be interested in building a campaign for? Why are you interested in these? (Here is the list of goals as a reminder: (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)
2. What sorts of elements might you include in your presentation to be creative, persuasive, and appealing to an audience?
3. Strategic campaigns often focus on fundraising, educating and raising awareness, or mobilizing people to take action. Which of these goals do you think is the most difficult to achieve in a campaign and why?