More Boiling Over, or Would You Strip Naked for a Cause?

This morning activists in Winnipeg took advantage ofthe city’s boil-water advisory to highlight the plight of Aboriginal communities where clean, drinkable water is an ongoing problem.

How did they do it? With a stunt.

In this case, the stunt was handing out bottled water to people in Winnipeg’s downtown. 

Each bottle contained a message about residents of one First Nation, Shoal Lake, have to boil their water every day.

"By us handing out bottles, for those who aren't aware of the fact that this disparity exists, it's possible people will think a bit more and realize that there is a bit of an irony there," said one of the activists.

The stunt worked. The group got the media coverage it was seeking. If they had just sent out a press release about their concern, likely nothing would have happened.

Stunts like this are a way for non-profit groups—which usually have few resources and less money—to get media attention.

For the media, which is always looking for some new way to tell a story, a stunt or gimmick can be very attractive.

This is especially true for TV news, which constantly needs fresh and interesting images to tell a story.

One of the most successful groups when it comes to stunts and gimmicks is Greenpeace. 

Whether it’s scaling buildings, putting fake polar bears on a fake ice flow in the River Thames, or sponsoring naked bike rides—a sure-fire way to get media attention—they are one of the best.

Meantime, a group of Christians in Perth, Australia stripped down to their underwear in January to show their concern for refugees in that country.

It worked; they got local and international coverage. It may have helped their group included a pastor and former missionary who promised to take off their clothes. 

Before your group rushes out to do a stunt, there are few things to keep in mind.

First, make sure that the stunt doesn’t overwhelm your message. You could sponsor a naked bike ride, but what would people remember? The cause, of people being naked? 

Second, make sure that the stunt or gimmick matches your group’s message. 

It might make sense for food bank to bake the world's largest pizza to illustrate there’s enough food available, but distribution and access is a problem. But it might make no sense for a local arts group to do the same thing—what does pizza have to do with art? 

Third, be aware that stunts can backfire. That’s what happened when Greenpeace activists were accused of causing damage to anancient etching in Peru when they tried to share an environmental message. 

Instead of starting a message about climate change, the story ended up being about Greenpeace’s cultural insensitivity and accusations of cover-up against the group.

The same thing happened to PETA when they used the Holocaust to communicate their message about animals being killed for food. 

Instead of a discussion about whether or not animals should be used for food, the campaign, titled Holocaust on Your Plate, generated a lot of negative reaction from Holocaust survivors and the Jewish community at large.

Other stunts that went wrong included when the U.S. Department of Defense decided to fly a large plane low over New York after 9/11, or when the Cartoon Network put metal devices that looked like characters in one of its shows—but like bombs to others—around Boston after the Boston Marathon bombing.

Those were very bad ideas.

Done well, a stunt can grab the attention of the media. But stunts can go wrong, too. Make sure you think carefully through the idea before deciding to do one.

You don't want to spend precious time in the media spotlight apologizing or defending your actions, instead of talking about the issue that you sought attention for in the first place.

Gimmicks

A gimmick differs from a stunt in that it usually doesn’t involve physical action. It can be a play or words, or a creative pitch to the media, like a group I know that sent their press release to the media wrapped around a bottle of beer.

Since finding ways to have your press release stand out from the pack is a goal of media relations, a gimmick can help you get noticed.

But like with stunts, these can backfire, too. What if the press release wrapped around the bottle of beer was sent to a recovering alcoholic? Or a Muslim, who doesn’t drink alcohol?

It could also arrive in the newsroom the same day someone is killed by a drunk driver.

The result? Instead of being about the cause or issue being promoted, the story could be about how some groups are insensitive to the suffering of others—and maybe even contributing to the problem.

There's an axiom in advertising that says that, when it comes to humour, 25 percent of people never get the joke. 

Most will just let it go, but others could be offended. You never know what will work or what will backfire. So you need to be careful when using gimmicks.

The same goes for me. I used a gimmick for this post, putting the word “naked” in the title. If you read it because of that, hey—it worked!

If you were offended, I’m sorry.

However you felt, I just hope you remember the rest of what I said.

Read the original Boiling Over post here.