'Liking Isn't Helping' - ad campaign uses jarring press photos to spur action

Liking a post is not political activism. It takes a certain level of self-delusion to think it is.

Oh, OK. I'll have them in my prayers then...

After the second BIG Christchurch earthquake, the main Community building, just off Cathedral Square, collapsed burying the computer systems of the 50 community organisations that were housed in the building. This included Volunteer Canterbury, the organisation that coordinated the volunteer groups who cleared away hundreds of tons of liquefaction, (on several occasions after further aftershocks) did it all via Facebook.

Thousands of people were able to view the Facebook Page to find out when and where they needed to be, and do so in an interactive way that made it easier to put the right people in the right places. So while the trivial act of 'Liking' a Facebook page or picture etc. might not help directly, it can certainly lead to more proactive results.

Actually if you study quantum physics or causality, sometimes just observing something can change it. And sometimes the simple act of knowing one thing makes it impossible to know another. You don't need to be actively involved to bring about change, and sometimes even, being actively involved only makes things worse, not better.

Also don't forget to check out the charities you give money to on foundationcenter, guidestar, etc. to make sure they are good stewards of your money.

I suppose I can add charity to the list along with Adobe or mµ4/3, as the stuff that brings out the cranks to comment.

Great campaign. Indeed. This shows how cynical are social networks. The social has nothing, or very little. Social networks have become commercial networks. Unfortunately.

I made a small donation once to the American Red Cross to help the people who suffered the devastating Christmas tsunami.

What I got in return was a lesson in persistence. Or just punishment. It was a new and constant flow of US Postal Mail, email, and online harassment; sometimes two or three times per week in each method, asking for more money "because the need is so great!"

My guess is that the Red Cross must have data mined my bank check somehow and got a lot of information that I didn't want them to have.

After a year or so, I had just had too much of it. I called them and asked to be removed from all mailing lists. I entered my name into the national "do not call" registries. I cleared my browser cookies and sent ARC mail to my junk folder. I returned their US Mail with "Return to sender - Remove this address from your mailing list" scrawled in big black Sharpie script.

It took almost 5 years to stop the harassment. I will NEVER send money to the ARC again. Ever.

My heart aches when I see that mother holding her dead or dying child. We cannot see her face but I feel her utter grief.

But...I thought Bill Gates donated $1000 dollars every time I hit the like button?

Fine, I'll make sure never promote awareness of a charity again. What a great campaign!

How many people did those photos and the ad campaign help? How many people did this article on DPreview help? None directly. But it raised awareness of the issues, just like "liking" a Facebook page does. Not everyone has the time, money, or desire to help every good cause in the world. But by helping to spread the word then maybe somebody who does will get the message.

As someone who has spent much of his life in volunteer disaster relief (and has the trashed camera equipment to prove it) I can sympathize with the point of this ad campaign. I was in the Philippines when Typhoon Damrey rolled right over the top of us, but news of the disaster was completely eclipsed by coverage of Hurricane Katrina which hit on the same day. Photographing damage at a farmer's market, someone shouted at me, "Take one for the BBC!" Of course, the BBC (and every other news organization) was uninterested despite the fact that Damrey was actually the more serious storm.

Would a few "likes" have helped? I doubt it. When you are standing up to your neck in water and the roof of your house is gone and your daughter just gave birth prematurely because of the stress, it is easy to feel bitter about the millions who "liked" but did nothing.

Clicking "like" salves your conscience for a few moments, making you feel good about yourself for having done nothing.

They could equally have a ring of hands held in prayer positions with the line "praying isn't helping'.

Somebody donated a lot of money, and the charity made an ad campaign out of it. Usual thing.
Read their reports, DEEPLY. They write, for example, "we only have 20% overhead". Then you read the report, "20% overhead, 80% programs". OK, let's see the programs. Then you dig in into each program, and there you see 90% overhead in the program itself, hidden layer after layer. VERY little gets to those who supposed to benefit.
Why do you think Bill Gates created his own charity and put his wife in charge, and Warren Buffet gives money to him? All others are frauds. And some of their "causes" only create more suffering people (like unnaturally high infant survival rates in already hopelessly overpopulated countries).

Want to help? Help directly.

Oh dear. The charity clearly does not know how 'Liking' does help on a Facebook page. They really need to read up on how important it is for a 'Page's' contents on Facebook to be liked. Without 'liking' a post it will become invisible in peoples Facebook news feeds in the future so even those people that will make a donation will not see the post in the first place. It is a very important part of SEO for a website.

yesterday our region hits by powerful earthquake, 6.2 magnitude, thousands house destroyed, by now 22 death toll, hundreds wounded...

This was on Petapixel four days ago, dpreview. Pick up the pace and stay relevant!

So any subject matter in the world ( preferably a controversial one ) that is in any imaginable way related to a photo or some photos or someone's photos, is fit to be reviewed as a photographic issue?

I suggest an article featuring fast cars and speed cameras.

You can LIKE with your actions. Some suggestions:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/

Or if you don't have money you can try volunteering your valuable time. Maybe put your photographic skill to work to make others aware so they can help. Check this one out:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/

Or go with one you already know, like the United Way or CRS or if you like neither find one you do like and make a commitment.

Press photos taken by newsmen on their iPhones?

I think all foreign aid should be banned unless it is due to natural disaster. Most of those aid campaign waste people more time and money in the developed country than their contribution in the undeveloped country resulting in overall negative contribution to society.

What is the point of this campaign? To get some likes on Facebook?

I need way more motivation than that to get away from the computer and actually do something. I doubt the Internet is the right medium to transmit this type of a message.

There is always a place for both. Without 'liking and sharing' on social media, many serious issues would not be noticed. Creating awareness is the first important step.

But it's also true that 'liking and sharing' alone doesn't make a difference. I often feel people like and share things on Facebook to make themselves feel better. 'Look how much I care about this and that'.

There is people who click 'like' on charities on Facebook. And then there are people who are out there and actually get stuff done.

Volunteering isn't necessarily the most productive use of one's time. For example, feeding one child for a day vs supplying one person of any age with a consumer electronic device they'll use for 2-3 years. Obviously that is just a hypothetical but it demonstrates that feeding impoverished people isn't the best thing for everyone to be doing.

'Liking isn't helping'... and neither is running an ad campaign.

This message would've been much more powerful had it come from actual volunteers being interviewed rather than an organization wasting their time and resources photoshopping images to convince *other people* to actually do something.