‘I’m Gonna Be Your Friend’: A Model Campaign

I absolutely love Save the Children’s new social media campaign harnessing the power of celebrities and a Bob Marley song to raise funds for the devastating food crisis affecting millions of children and their families across East Africa.

The “I’m Gonna Be Your Friend” campaign, which kicked off today, is named after the “I’m gonna be your friend” lyric in Marley’s 1973 song “High Tide Or Low Tide.” Using the moving song as the soundtrack to a YouTube video slide show of the crisis, the campaign inspires people to be a friend and act now.

What I love most about the “I’m Gonna Be Your Friend” campaign is that it invokes deep empathy and connects the act of donating with tangible meaning and joy. All too often the desperate nature of humanitarian crises result in communications pieces invoking grief, guilt, or anger, which provoke paralysis, the opposite of what they were intended to do.

You can test for yourself the castrating effects of negative (lower emotion) messaging.

1. Ask a partner to think of a joyful or peaceful experience while keeping his or her arm extended. After your partner focuses on the positive thought for a few seconds, push down on the arm. It should remain firm and strong.
2. Now ask your partner to focus on a situation involving grief, guilt, or anger. After a few seconds, push down on the arm again. Most likely, your partner’s arm will be much easier to push down.

Weakening people emotionally and physically makes them feel powerless and overwhelmed. Many will just block you out, and a surprising few will take action, no matter how good the cause.

The other things I love about the “I’m Gonna Be Your Friend” campaign are:

1. Its simple call to action gives a sense of urgency.
2. Its call to action is easy to act upon. Marley’s song is being sold on iTunes with all proceeds going to Save the Children. The uncluttered campaign website also prominently features click-through links for direct donations to Save the Children’s East Africa appeal.
3. The amazing array of celebrities lined up to disseminate “I’m Gonna Be Your Friend” campaign call to action worldwide.

While the campaign is just beginning, I predict it will be a case study in framing tough issues in an inspiring, meaningful, and easily actionable way.

What do you think about Save the Children’s campaign? Tell me about it in the comments.

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