Tag: nptech

Alicia Silverstone, nakedness and Peta – the dream online/offline charity campaign?

alicia-silverstone-peta

I’m agog at how effectively the US/UK non-profit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is at using online media combined with conventional marketing techniques.

They have produced a gorgeous looking advert (which is only available through their site and yes it is right by a donate button and some very slick lifestyle advice to encourage you to become vegetarian) showing a naked Alicia Silverstone (I’d never heard of her before – but then I was barely aware of Peta!).

The ad also has that other critical element a simple, concrete, surprising and compelling story: Stop eating animals and you too could look like this!

All that should be compelling enough, but what has made this such a wonderful campaign though is that the nudity has led to a TV station in houston banning the ad, as they explain on their blog:

We had picked Houston because it consistently ranks in the top ten least healthy cities in the country, so we figured they could use some good diet advice (honestly, who in their right mind would turn down friendly diet advice from the beautiful Alicia Silverstone?), but Houstonians need not despair. As PETA President Ingrid Newkirk puts it,

“Houston viewers can still go to PETA.org and get an eyeful, not only of the stunning Ms. Silverstone, but also of our free Vegetarian Starter Kit—chock full of delicious recipes—that will make them drool for an entirely different reason.”

It’s not the first time Peta has used nudity – they also pull a wonderful stunt each year just before the Pamplona Bull run by staging the Running of the Nudes (thanks catnip for the post which set me off on this) and other people have disrobed for them. If it all sound too frivolous then why not look at the stories they tell with video on petatv an their youth campaign in the uk called peta2 which uses the tagline “question authority”.

I do though have to add two qualifiers. I couldn’t get the embed video on your blog code to work for me and is it possible that I’m only really enthusing about this because I’m a bloke? That aside I’d love to see some figures about how far this effort helps fund raising and changes some behaviour, but I expect this substantial investment will pay off.

Bob Piper offline because of censorship….

.. according too David Nikel and the Diary of Chis K. And local uber blogger Bob Piper is not alone according to Chris

Tim Ireland’s Bloggerheads blog has vanished this evening. Iain Dale reports that this is because Tim’s webhost withdrew its services after receiving a legal threat from an Uzbek billionaire named Alisher Usmanov. Other sites affected include www.boris-johnson.com. If this is a case of bullying billionaires vs bloggers, GO BLOGGERS!

Update 21st Sept 09.30. Chicken Yoghurt has a simple explanation of why Bob is down:

A point of clarification: Of the blogs mentioned above, only Craig Murray and Tim Ireland made blog posts concerning Alisher Usmanov. It is these blog posts that were objected to by Usmanov’s lawyers.

Boris Johnson, Bob Piper and Clive Summerfield have lost their sites for the simple reason that they were hosted on the the same server as Craig’s and Tim’s sites and went the same way when the plug was pulled. They are NOT associated with the dispute with Alisher Usmanov in any way.

How crude!
Further Update Tom Watson is now hoping Bob’s plight will unite local bloggers from across the political spectrum:

This guy Usmanov is some unifying oligarch. He’s got Iain Dale writing in support of Tim and Craig Murray. All we need now is that idiot James Graham and Prague Tory (who we should congratulate on his recent wedding) to join in and we’ve got the biggest show of holding hands since the last night of the proms.

(James – I have no opinion or your idiocy or otherwise!) Tom (himself an MP) adds that he thinks the decision of the web host company was a little hasty – given the profile of the people they’ve cut off

Unfortunately for the hotshot lawyers, one of them happens to be a democratically elected Member of Parliament with regular columns in a number of national newspapers. Oh, and he wants to be mayor of London. Who would you put your money on to win the battle of hearts and minds?

Tony at the Morning Star has compiled this hat tip list which shows the breadth of interest and bears repeating: Wonkos world, Chicken Yoghurt, Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots, Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog ….

The Peril of Perfectionism explained by the News Diamond.

Paul Bradshaw's News Diamond

We all know how perfectionism can paralyse. I suspect it can be more damaging for large voluntary organisations than smaller ones. David Brazeal writes about this as it relates to organisations and social media:

When you’re printing 5,000 slick handouts, it makes sense to write, and share with colleagues, and rewrite, and proofread, and rewrite again, until you’ve eliminated all potential mistakes. The trouble is that every rewrite by a different person in your organization sucks a little bit of the human voice out of the message. And eventually you’re left with something slick and shiny and pretty — but impersonal. New media tools don’t have to be this way.

His comments are off the back of a by Anna Farmery (direct links not working) in which she urges users to:

  • Be willing to try new ideas…test them, try them, see if they work – if not, you can always change it.
  • People love to be part of a company, a team that are willing to embrace new ideas, encourage new thinking….they can forgive imperfection, they rarely forgive slowness or apathy.
  • People who work with you want to work for a human being, part of being human being is making a few mistakes. As long as you own up, as long as you are honest…people will stay with you. Imperfection can be engaging!
  • When you are wanting to move forward, you will need to take risks. If you spend too much time looking for the perfect answer…then in the meantime, the question will probably have changed!

This is hard for bureaucracies but often second nature for small voluntary organsations and certainly community groups, both of which live on the nervous energy of habitual improvisation.

One way to help understand may be with the wonderful new work being done by Paul Bradshaw. He frames the future of information (journalism) as a diamond – but the most critical point he makes is that future news will never be finished, it will always be a fluctuating collaboration between public, editor and author.

Birmingham Cafes and Free Wifi.

Like Pete I firmly believe that free wifi is a key factor in giving a cafe my custom. So I’ve just set up a flickr group for Brum hostelries with free wifi. Please add you pics and use the location tags (make sure they are set to public) so we can all find and encourage free wifi cafes.

You can use the comments sections etc to tell what they are like – perhaps even how much we can expect to pay for a cuppa.

Any suggestions for better tags please shout in the comments section here or on flickr. If you fancy joining as an administrator also shout.
Free Wifi in Birmingham

Update. Thanks Pete for two more in the series. If you have any pics of the Kitchen at the Custard factory or Rooty Frooty or the Coffee Lounge please geotag them on flickr and pop them in the group.