'Why would you not want to feel that feeling every day?'

Well, quite.

Way back in January of this year, on the way back from the rather good Woody Sez 'musical', I clocked an ad for Action Aid, part of a recent campaign to get me feeling good about giving. This morning, whilst listening to Woody Guthrie on Spotify, an advert for Action Aid popped up; the ad outlines how getting involved with Action Aid is good because it makes you feel good. It ends by asking: 'Why would you not want to feel that feeling every day?' Splashed across the ad is the tag line "What a feeling", a phrase that can't help but remind me of heart burn; perhaps the producers thought the cross-reference would induce feelings of warmth and excitement. No such luck for me.


Take a look at the ad and take the quiz.
I took the quiz and followed each part faithfully and sincerely. The result of this quiz is that my feeling is OUTRAGE. Quite bloody right, too. Here is what the quiz revealed to me:

The world is full of injustice. Cherish the rage it gives you. Tell your friends, make a fuss, stand up and shout it to the skies. It's your outrage that will make you do something to change the world. It's a powerful feeling.

In many ways, I can't help but agree with what is offered here. But it's only on the surface that this is something I can agree with. The problem here is that I know this is written by someone at a marketing agency and therefore I can't take it seriously. I know I feel outraged; I don't need an advertising campaign to tell me what to do or think. (Or do I?)

After they've told you it's a powerful feeling, they kindly offer to help you deal with it by ringing you up and getting you bank details. What to make of all this? On a practical level, you would think it's only prudent for a charity to invest in new ways of reaching potential donors. There is only so much sanctimonious crap from me that people are willing to listen to before realising that, in the real world, you just have to get on and make the best of things within the environment in which you operate.

For me, though, there's only so far I'm willing to accept this way of thinking. There are some broader points to be made about this ad as an advert. I'm less interested for now on the actual work that Action Aid is trying to do here. I don't doubt that much of a positive nature will result from their campaign. But, as always, I'm interested in what this ad tells us about us. And that is the whole point of this blog, too: using little skirmishes with the cultural dustbin as tokens with which to think about our world.

There is one very prominent thinker who has given the example of charity and their branding strategies some thought, and in ways better than I can. So, I'm going to sign off here by simply pointing you in the direction of Zizek and his discussion of Cultural Capitalism. More from me soon.