Kony 2012 – sigh to the critics

Like everyone, I’ve seen the riveting 30 minutes. And yes I got a tear in my eye. I praise the excellence involved in communicating a difficult issue to a wide audience. Of course it is a simplistic argument. Of course it is mostly first world, white heroes, but it is something that, above all, worked. It’s moving a massive group of people to think, discuss and do.

How much effort goes into multimillion-dollar campaigns that fall flat?

How often do activists spend most of their time talking with each other rather than engaging a larger audience?

There are multiple ways to     get     things     done.

And who is being harmed? Would critics rather that young adults turn their full attention back to internet fun like “sh*t people say” or world’s cutest dog and kitty photo and share those?

Kudos to Invisible Children and their approach to make a warlord famous and thus real to a huge audience. I watched it with my daughter who asked me to order the action kit the way she would ask to see a Harry Potter movie.

Innovation, high production values, engagement: people respond to it.

Every marketer, communications person alive wants to “break through the clutter” and emerge like Kony 2012 has. This campaign is a star and can coexist without diminishing other important, long-term, policy-shifting work that is going on.