Charities: So Close, Yet So Very Very Far!
>> Wednesday, August 31, 2011
So neatly following on from last week, I survived the weekend in the testing and harsh wilderness of rural Berkshire, and I am back here and can live another day. Although, I did suffer a battle-injury in the form of a slight coughyness. I know, it's such a hard and testing life being me! Anyway, after four days what can only be described as contrived poverty, lots of rain and a very fun time, I have come back with an interesting observation. Let me explain...
At these places, there are normally lots of stalls selling all sorts of stuff at such inflated prices you'd expect a week of servitude from the seller to come with it. There were lots of food stands that, despite an apparent limit by the festival organisers on prices, were a bit... dear, shall we say? I wouldn't pay £7 for a small box of egg-fried rice, mostly because I don't have the intelligence of a 6 year old and I can place this in the category of "rip off", but there were lots of people queueing up to get some, which I suspect probably had nothing to do with how drunk everyone was, and how appealing greasy rice is when you've got through your fourth can of Foster's. However, there are also many stalls that I can only describe as "charity stalls", mostly because they are stalls run by charity. There was a stall by the Salvation Army selling tea and cakes for half the massively inflated price of everyone else, while at the same time offering people an opportunity to talk to someone in private if anything was worrying them. I thought this was a fantastic idea; at every point, they were being nice and helpful to everyone. In fact, there were a number of different charities that had something similar, yet one does stick out in my mind: Action Aid.
Their tent was large, and housed lots of soft squidgy things to lie down on, which at a festival can sit happily in the "good idea" category. There was a man with improbable hair wearing what looked like a dressing gown playing music in the corner, it was very agreeable and British. Action Aid aim to bring about an end to poverty, which is all lovely and I wish them well. However, I think in all the excitement, they missed a trick. See, to help with their efforts to end poverty, they named their campaign "bollocks to poverty". Catchy! Anyone wanting to help could stand there holding a pink sign, while their photo was taken and added to a database of many other thousands of photographees. I sat there for what might as well have been thousands of years while I tried to figure out how someone being photographed hungover and holding a sign will go towards helping someone earning $1 a day, and I couldn't think of one! Not even some ludicrous contrived way, like giving them a giggle at the bad shots. I found nothing to tell people about what to do to help in any way, nor anywhere to donate even a tin of beans. Oh dear!
It's a shame, because it was the perfect opportunity: captive audience who were the perfect market, all sitting out their hangovers on your pink cushions. Something that takes 10 minutes of their time too much to ask, was it? Maybe telling how you'll do it, or what it is you're actually doing, specifically? Nope, in the end they merely provided us all with a resting place to eat expensive rice before we moved on. Even Danish beer brand Tuborg were selling beers and giving away promotional gear while they offered a cool little "beer garden" experience, so why didn't Action Aid even sell me a cup of coffee? Was it only about awareness? Probably, but awareness doesn't pay the bills of a Zambian goat herder, does it? Unfortunately, they seem to have fallen into the same trap that Toyota have with their questionably looking car, the Pious.. sorry I mean Prius. The emissions are good, but my diesel Polo does far better MPG. What the Pious... sorry Prius does is it acts like a badge. "Look everyone at how green I am". It's ugly inside, not fun to drive and not hugely more efficient than other cars like it, but that's apparently not the point. Helping the environment is 2nd place to looking like you're helping the environment, and that's what I fear Action Aid have done: made such a fuss of showing how much they want to help people in absolute poverty..... that they forgot to help people in absolute poverty.
I'd love to refer them to Tuborg for some lessons on how to do it: a bar in the corner, lots of themed games and such based around the message, but instead I feel that a better idea is at hand: I'd actually like to refer every other trader to the Salvation Army to show them how not to rip everyone off with expensive rice or £2.50 for a cup of tea! Then, we'd spend less time "talking over" with them about how empty our wallets are and more time enjoying one of the best live events all year!
Their tent was large, and housed lots of soft squidgy things to lie down on, which at a festival can sit happily in the "good idea" category. There was a man with improbable hair wearing what looked like a dressing gown playing music in the corner, it was very agreeable and British. Action Aid aim to bring about an end to poverty, which is all lovely and I wish them well. However, I think in all the excitement, they missed a trick. See, to help with their efforts to end poverty, they named their campaign "bollocks to poverty". Catchy! Anyone wanting to help could stand there holding a pink sign, while their photo was taken and added to a database of many other thousands of photographees. I sat there for what might as well have been thousands of years while I tried to figure out how someone being photographed hungover and holding a sign will go towards helping someone earning $1 a day, and I couldn't think of one! Not even some ludicrous contrived way, like giving them a giggle at the bad shots. I found nothing to tell people about what to do to help in any way, nor anywhere to donate even a tin of beans. Oh dear!
It's a shame, because it was the perfect opportunity: captive audience who were the perfect market, all sitting out their hangovers on your pink cushions. Something that takes 10 minutes of their time too much to ask, was it? Maybe telling how you'll do it, or what it is you're actually doing, specifically? Nope, in the end they merely provided us all with a resting place to eat expensive rice before we moved on. Even Danish beer brand Tuborg were selling beers and giving away promotional gear while they offered a cool little "beer garden" experience, so why didn't Action Aid even sell me a cup of coffee? Was it only about awareness? Probably, but awareness doesn't pay the bills of a Zambian goat herder, does it? Unfortunately, they seem to have fallen into the same trap that Toyota have with their questionably looking car, the Pious.. sorry I mean Prius. The emissions are good, but my diesel Polo does far better MPG. What the Pious... sorry Prius does is it acts like a badge. "Look everyone at how green I am". It's ugly inside, not fun to drive and not hugely more efficient than other cars like it, but that's apparently not the point. Helping the environment is 2nd place to looking like you're helping the environment, and that's what I fear Action Aid have done: made such a fuss of showing how much they want to help people in absolute poverty..... that they forgot to help people in absolute poverty.
I'd love to refer them to Tuborg for some lessons on how to do it: a bar in the corner, lots of themed games and such based around the message, but instead I feel that a better idea is at hand: I'd actually like to refer every other trader to the Salvation Army to show them how not to rip everyone off with expensive rice or £2.50 for a cup of tea! Then, we'd spend less time "talking over" with them about how empty our wallets are and more time enjoying one of the best live events all year!
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