Stand with the Women and Girls of Congo

I received an email from my friend Anne Ream’s foundation The Voices and Faces Project—a documentary initiative created to bring the testimony of sexual violence survivors to the attention of the public:

“we have seen first hand how difficult it is for women to come forward with their testimony”.

Social media builds and amplifies what people find interesting, regardless of where it came from.

In 1995 I was returning to Toronto from New York on a routine, almost commuter flight. Just as the plane landed upon our arrival at Pearson Int’l airport, the tires blew and caught fire. The plane skidded across the runway and abruptly stopped amid ambulances, fire trucks, police cars etc. You could see the flames outside the window, which appeared to be close to the engines. Suddenly, the chutes came out and the flurry of fleeing passengers began. People were trying to grab their bags from the upper baggage compartments, stewardesses were screaming for everyone to take off their shoes and get onto the shoot. As you took your turn and entered the door you saw that the drop looked like you were jumping from the CN Tower. With no time to think, you slid down at warp speed to be greeted by someone on the ground shouting for you to run…we ran towards a grassed section well away from the plane that still had flames coming from the tires that had blown and waited for a bus to taking us to a holding terminal. In those days most people did not have a cell phone or laptop—let alone the ability to provide a real-time account of what had happened. Lines formed with people on payphones trying to call their loved ones while sitting there for several hours. Not being in contact with anyone except for those that shared this experience kept this frightening event extremely insular.

Viral Marketing Campaign Gets Quick Results!

In the spirit of sharing at this time of year I wrote about viral marketing in my last post. 2009 is now just around the corner and the premier focus will definitely be answering the question—how will you engage your consumer with the goal of building brand evangelists one person at a time?

Social Media: for the good of Mankind.

Maybe it’s the snow coming down like rain or the aspartame rotting out my brain, but I’ve really been having a hard time focusing lately (Simpson’s nod for those who might be wondering). For the past couple of days, I’ve found myself flitting from one post subject to the next—everything from the suicidal Pepsi Max campaign to how men and women respond to social media. But I’ve been unable to settle on a topic. However, there’s an issue (of sorts) that I haven’t been able to shake. I don’t know why. Perhaps there’s something in it that speaks to my own fears for someone I love very deeply (long story for another day). So permit me to state my case and then I’ll gladly swerve back to discussing the fun side of social media and the new Marketing Democracy.