It is incredibly difficult to grab the attention of an audience that is beyond your traditional “choir.” And to campaign, this is exactly what you need to do.
Rather than spending a lot of energy (and probably limited resources) creating stories that will capture people’s attention, surfing on the wave of what already captures people’s imagination might be more effective.
This tactic is close to what is known as “détournement” or the art of reappropriating artifacts drawn from popular media and injecting them with radical connotations.
Here is, for example, a good one on McDonald’s:
Being opportunistic doesn’t necessarily involve being critical of the original content you are using.
For example, Pokémon Go’s success has unleashed a range of attempts to surf on its success, without the game itself being targeted in the message.
One such example is this campaign against Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
The photomontage shows a dead Pikachu in the rubble of a Gaza house. Pokémon has also been featured in other campaigns.
Another example of “opportunism” is this genius campaign by the Salvation Army, which surfed on the trending Twitter discussion of whether a dress appears to viewers as white and gold or black and blue.
Denouncing how we turn a blind eye to violence against women, it asks, “Why is it so hard to see black and blue?”
Such strategies can be impactful, and, if cleverly combined with humour, actually convince part of the opposition. In the case of the dress, for example, the Twitterstorm was also partly caused by the strong reaction against the shallowness of the matter. This opposition was probably delighted to find in the Salvation Army’s campaign a good way to balance this out with a more meaningful engagement.
Iconic images and brands can work well as a tactic for detournement. The shot of The Beatles crossing a zebra crossing on Abbey Road in London has become world famous, instantly recognised, and subject to much copying by hundreds of tourists every year. In this image, a pepper-spraying police man joins the crossing and sprays them in the face. It is a shocking image, but that just goes to show that detournement can work well on famous images as much as famous brands.
Lessons learned
- You should be conscious that this is sheer “piggybacking,” a fundamental and often misused principle in campaigning. The Cambridge dictionary defines it as “to use something that someone else has made or done in order to get an advantage.” Normally, your “noble” cause will allow you to do this, but there are limits to even what philanthropies can do without being shameless.
- Are you really trying to get to your target group, or is this “opportunity” distracting you from your target group in order to go for a “low-hanging fruit” (an easy catch, a quick win)? The latter might be okay, but it just needs to fit within your strategy. This means that you should have a plan for what to do with this audience once their interest in your cause is caught. And have a mid-term strategy on how to keep them engaged and possibly move up the engagement ladder, bringing them gradually to more meaningful action.
- By using this opportunity, are you being consistent with your values and your brand image? For example, if you piggyback (that is, surf) on the success of a commercial for a product, will this be compatible with your ethics as an NGO?
- Surfing on something you want to combat, such as a very hurtful statement made by a celebrity, might backfire: Even negative communication reinforces the visibility of what has been said, and will anchor the ORIGINAL statement in the minds of the public, more than your counterstatement. Before surfing on something negative, ask yourself clearly if this will not just do more harm than good. If you don’t have a very credible answer, abstain from using this “opportunity.
