I don't donate to people who tell me that I have to buy their album, their product, or anything to donate money to a good cause. I find the whole concept to be of ill-intentions and mainly about sustaining itself. Especially if they use it as a marketing ploy. It's nice to know they care, but why make a huge deal about it to make people buy your sh*t.
I can see people wanting to raise awareness, and that donating a portion of the proceeds from something you're selling anyway is a good idea; I think if I was a rock star raising money, I'd say, "Just go to X place and make a donation, please. We'll say thank you to you on our next album/website.", and then quietly donate a portion of the proceeds anyway. Maybe I'm naive.
I still think the marketing ploy gets in the the way of really raising any sort of awareness. If you're not aware that there are children starving and you feel like you need to buy something to get awareness, I'm not sure if that's really awareness or just marketing.
I can see both sides of that. On the other hand, I like buying things where I know that the proceeds or a portion of them go to specific causes. I don't feel the need to have a white 'Make Poverty History' band, but I can see how they could start up conversations and thereby raise some awareness. It's the "percentage of sales of one product only on one day only!" that really bugs me. And I genuinely do wish companies would simply spend the advertising money on donating to the actual charities instead and have a collection point at the counter for customers to donate to.
Raising awareness can be done without any product or service involved. I do see your point of view. Yes, of course it's nice to know that when you buy your favorite something that part of it goes to charity. At the same time It's not necessary to tie charity in with something that you have to purchase. It's a good idea to just donate directly for causes you believe in and find out things for yourself such as "poverty" and not rely on a large corporation or a celebrity/band/muscian to do so. I don't think there's anything wrong with raising awareness but I have a problem when as a consumer you think you are doing something for a good cause simply by making a purchase when you can get involved or do something yourself for that cause directly (simply just reading or exploring the causes). I think it's nice when bands or musicians do donate for a good cause. I just think that's an added bonus and not an incentive to make a purchase. Purchasing and donating are two very different acts in my view and if they happen to tie together with a
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think it's nice when bands or musicians do donate for a good cause. I just think that's an added bonus and not an incentive to make a purchase.
This is the way I approach it in my life.
The problem is that most people don't look things up for themselves or see themselves as able to make a difference; we've had centuries of enculturation to learned helplessness, and it's been very effective. If people generally did look things up and do something about them, we'd not be looking at environmental disaster, wars all over the show, poverty, or any of a thousand other ills, and most of us would be vegetarian
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I still don't see how purchasing something knowing that it is for a good cause is effective in raising awareness. You're right unfortunately people don't explore and educate themselves. I doubt that the majority of the people at the "make povery history" concert actually went home afterwards and looked up poverty issues or are continuing to educate themselves about it.
I submit that a multi-pronged attack is necessary: encourage donation for its own sake, encourage participation on a grassroots level as well as engagement with their nation's political system, and encourage companies to donate portions of their proceeds. I agree completely. Sadly, this isn't really happening too much on a mass level. Most of the time when you are an employee of a corporation and you donate through your corporation. The corporation uses it for the purposes of tax reduction. Again, better to just donate on your own.
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Brain faster than fingers.
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This is the way I approach it in my life.
The problem is that most people don't look things up for themselves or see themselves as able to make a difference; we've had centuries of enculturation to learned helplessness, and it's been very effective. If people generally did look things up and do something about them, we'd not be looking at environmental disaster, wars all over the show, poverty, or any of a thousand other ills, and most of us would be vegetarian ( ... )
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I submit that a multi-pronged attack is necessary: encourage donation for its own sake, encourage participation on a grassroots level as well as engagement with their nation's political system, and encourage companies to donate portions of their proceeds.
I agree completely. Sadly, this isn't really happening too much on a mass level. Most of the time when you are an employee of a corporation and you donate through your corporation. The corporation uses it for the purposes of tax reduction. Again, better to just donate on your own.
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