ONE Campaign and the News Media

Although the ONE campaign hasn't received much national or international news coverage, it does have campaigns that cross borders for various issues that have received attention at national and international levels. The latest campaign received attention from various celebrities that were promoting the beginning of the end of AIDS by 2015 campaign through a video that can be found on their website. They also sent an email out calling attention to their video that took supporters to the site to watch it. Many celebrities have been known to endorse the ONE Campaign already, like Bono who co-founded the organization, bring large amount of public attention to them. Although many times, the attention is not from large news media outlets or even for the actual campaign itself, the attention it receives is crucial to spreading awareness about the issues they are campaigning for. For example, asking people to help end global poverty or put an end to AIDS might sounds a little far fetched and unrealistic, not something that news media can "sell" or that would put people in the "buying mood" but attach a celebrities name to it, and it automatically draws more attention to the issue. In the case of the ONE Campaign, any attention to the issue is good attention because it allows people to delve more into these important items that can eventually lead to social change.

One important milestone for the ONE Campaign was getting attention from then presidential candidate Barack Obama. The ONE Campaign created a petition to have Obama, if elected, express his commitment to fight global poverty and support an FY2010 budget request that would support his commitments to help end global poverty. The following was said by Barack Obama at his inauguration speech on January 20th, 2009:

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.


This campaign was a success and even though the news media that was covering the president's speech wasn't there for the ONE Campaign specifically, the issue received national coverage through a large political figure on such a monumental day.  

Act Now: "Show Big Oil We Won't Be Bullied"

Upon entering the ONE campaign site this week, it was hard to miss what their current focus is on: BIG OIL Companies. An ad urging people to sign the petition in support of the Cardin - Lugar Amendment is the first thing you see when opening the webpage with a short description of why we won't be "bullied" by big oil companies. This amendment, which was passed in 2010, "requires oil, gas, and mining companies to reveal their payments to foreign governments." This law would require the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission "to develop the implementing regulation - or "rule" by April 2011." Many of the larger gas, oil, and mining companies have been pressuring the SEC to weaken the rule though, in an effort to hide the actual amounts spent and deals made with governments from various countries. ONE is fighting this because many of the countries rich in oil and other natural resources are also some of the poorest countries that would benefit from the money their governments receive. The lack of government transparency and the lethargic process the SEC is taking to pass their "rule" has ONE working hard to spread awareness and gain support to see some action and soon. The law would require "oil, gas, and mining companies... to disclose what they pay to U.S. governments and foreign governments as part of their annual filings to the [SEC]." This information would then be accessible to the public and would be especially important to those working to "activist groups trying to hold their governments accountable for spending oil and mineral wealth." All of this information was found on the ONE website fact sheet, provided by Publish What You Pay, and can be found here: http://www.one.org/c/us/policybrief/4200/.

While reading through this week's Gitlan reading, one thing that stuck out to me about the ONE campaign was their use of celebrities in advertisements and endorsments. Many large celebrities like Bono, George Clooney, and Angelina Jolie have all endorsed the ONE campaign and the total celebrity supporters list has over 50 listed. While Gitlan first talks about how leadership leads to celebrity I feel like ONE uses these celebrities to encouage leadership. It could be said that some celebrities may have used the ONE campaign to improve their charitable reputations, but we like to believe that most were genuinely concerned and supportive of the causes ONE represents. Their popularity enhances the movement and reflectong on that, this point in the reading really stuck out to me: "The all-permeating spectacular culture insisted that the movement be identified through its celebrities; naturally it attracted personalities who enjoyed performance, who new how to flaunt some symbolic attribute, who spoke quotably." Before learning more about ONE the name that I associated most with the campaign was BONO, who obviously has the qualities that Gitlan mentioned. Although his writing was published years ago, it's interesting to see how these celebrity endorsments have evolved over a few decades and still hold these qualities. This could be because of the evolving culture of the media and society and the everlasting hype that surrounds "celebrity." Either way, in the case of the ONE campaign, the use of celebrity has enhanced the movement and worked to spread awareness.

Happy Birthday One Campaign!

February 2nd marked the 10th anniversary for the One campaign and a blog on their site commemorated some of the great things they've accomplished over the years. The article was first published on the Huffington Post UK website but I found it on the ONE BLOG and it was written by Jamie Drummond, a usual ONE BLOG contributer. Highlighted were many of the successes and struggles faced over the past ten years, along with a more personal story of two HIV positive Ugandan women, who without the help of the ONE campaign and its affiliates, would probably not be alive to tell their story today. I admire how they address areas where they have been at fault, including how they waited to long to invest in food security, how they haven't started working on trade in Africa and further development of African markets, and genuine support for a transparent government and lessen corruption. My favorite quote that i think really represents what this organization stands for comes at the end of the article. "There are grounds for optimism, for hope – for when we work together as one, across political divides, oceans, ethnicities, and beliefs we’ve seen we can achieve awesome results. With so much more to do forgive us if we celebrate – for it’s the best way to accelerate."

The ONE site also often posts different "living proof" videos to show real life stories of the progress being made on HIV/AIDS. This video stuck out to me after reading through some of the Shur reading. The woman in the video talks about how her husband hit her when she asked that he get tested for the virus. After he died she knew that she had to find a way to care for her family and empower herself through work and being HIV positive. She works hard in her babershop and is very open about being HIV positive and as we see in the video, even asks her costumers if they have been tested as well. I would say that this behavior is deviant as described by Shur. Shur describes a deviant situation as having two ingredients: "stigma-laden meanings, and the processes of perception and interaction through which they emerge and are applied." The stigma behind being HIV positive is often seen as embarassing and negative and the perception as one that should be hidden and looked down upon. This woman deviated from those perceptions and took a stand on virus awareness and prevention, all while being open about her disease.

Living Proof | The Barbershop from ONE Campaign on Vimeo.