Launched Into The Void

Astonishing as it is that our vapid society now finds novelty in taking a picture without plastering chemicals all over ourselves, CancerResearchUK's NoMakeupSelfie campaign has proven a huge success, raising more than £2million for the charity. However, with the huge potential benefit of viral marketing comes ever higher stakes if things go wrong.

There is no 'Block' button for a marketing campaign, leaving advertisers, who are used to scrutinising every element of a 30 second TV ad, blundering through the mists of a virtual hyperspace their customers understand far better than they do. Even if they get it right, once a campaign is launched into the void, there is nothing they can do about the subsequent knock on effect of the public sending out their message.

So when hundreds of people started tweeting 'Donate' as the trigger word for texting money to the charity instead of their strange choice 'Beat', Cancer Research instantly lost £18000 and had to rely on the good will of Unicef, who received the money instead, to send it back.

But this does raise an interesting moral question. What is giving? People surely give to charity to make the world a better place so if the money goes to the wrong charity - aside from the donator's own biases towards a particular cause, does it really matter? Surely it makes more sense to amalgamate all charities and have people simply donate to 'charity' with an impartial governing body giving each cause what it needs.

After all, everything is worth helping so why should it be the charities with the best advertising campaigns who end up with the most money? And do those charities really help more people as a result? Is there a limit to how many 'administration costs' a charity can invent for themselves? 

Wow, never thought I'd find myself advocating against the free market but imagine how much more would get done if these organisations had someone to answer to - how efficiently they'd have to work, how effective their business models would be and how many more people would give to 'charity' who aren't currently moved by an individual cause.

Meanwhile, the advertising budget would be colossal. Imagine what creative minds could do with that lack of limitation and an endless amount of subject matter within 'charity' as a spectrum. This is certainly a radical idea but given that every charity is already registered, it may not be beyond our grasp.