Last week we discussed the “Dove Real Beauty Campaign” and how social media has allowed Dove® to redefine beauty. Social media has been such an integral part of spreading awareness for just about any cause in existence.
Ten years ago, perhaps a tenth of the people who viewed videos, read articles, and participated in campaigns would have been able to do so because there was no way to quickly spread these campaigns to anyone and everyone with a computer.
This week, we’re highlighting Water Is Life’s video about the infamous First World Problems.
Water Is Life is an organization dedicated to bringing clean water to everyone. Their mission is: “To provide life-giving clean water solutions and WASH programs to schools and villages in developing countries through innovative sustainable water solutions in partnership, to scale our impact globally”.
In October of 2012, Water Is Life created a video campaign to raise awareness for the people of Haiti. This video features Haitians reading #FirstWorldProblems that many Americans and people from other wealthy nations have tweeted, complaining about problems that people in developing countries only wish that they had. This video went viral and got attention from nearly 5 million people. Some of the “problems” stated were: “I hate when my leather seats aren’t heated”, and “I hate it when my house is so big, I need two wireless routers”. To us, these seem like actual problems, but when you hear them from someone who struggles to survive day in and day out, you (hopefully) realize that these things are so silly to complain about and start to appreciate what you have.
Water Is Life‘s most recent video is about a 4 year old boy from Kenya who got to cross off everything on his bucket list. This video shows all the things we take for granted that mean the world to someone else. In Kenya, unsafe water is one of the leading causes of death in children under five. Next time you feel thirsty, consider how blessed you are to be able to drink a glass of cool, clean water.
These campaigns would not have been possible without the use of social media. Without YouTube, only a few people would have seen the videos. Without people sharing the videos on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms, they would not have reached all ends of the world, and certainly not as quickly.
When I first heard of this, I was in shock. I was thinking they were pulling people’s information and using it against their will, but it was perfectly fine in their terms. Then I got the message. It is amazing how ungrateful people can be when they have things that people would sell their bodies to have in other parts of the world. I hope they continue to do this to change the minds and hearts of people around the world.