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Invisible Children and Damage Control

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Taylor Donohoo in blog 13 Comments

Correction: Since then, it has been clarified that Jason Russell was not arrested, but rather detained. There are no charges pending against him.

Healthy skepticism never hurt anyone. In fact, doing your own research before committing to anything is an excellent idea, which is why the nonprofit organization Invisible Children didn’t shy away from criticism two weeks ago after they launched their Kony 2012 campaign. However, the criticism concerning the organization is about to get a lot worse.

Jason RussellAmong some of the initial criticisms surrounding the Kony 2012 campaign was where the money donated was being delegated. Because nonprofits are required to disclose how they spend their money, people dived right into the finances of Invisible Children and found out that only around 30 percent of the donations actually go to Uganda. The majority of the money went toward their awareness campaign including filming, travel expenses, etc. While this information is still of concern to critics, Invisible Children is scrambling to justify another reputation wringer: the alleged arrest of co-founder Jason Russell.

Last week, Jason Russell was detained in San Diego for being drunk in public, lewd behavior, and vandalism. As if the organization wasn’t already under scrutiny, this stunt has changed the game from answering public concern to damage control.

Russell has been the face of the entire campaign, which is why his wild behavior put Invisible Children in a tough spot. The man has lived his whole life trying to bring change to Africa, and in two weeks he tarnished his reputation. The CEO of Invisible Children, Ben Keesey, issued an official statement:

Jason Russell was unfortunately hospitalized yesterday suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition. He is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better. The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday. Jason’s passion and his work have done so much to help so many, and we are devastated to see him dealing with this personal health issue. We will always love and support Jason, and we ask that you give his entire family privacy during this difficult time.

The prime purpose of Invisible Children has been to create awareness for Joseph Kony and his crimes against humanity. You can learn more about the campaign here. Now, Invisible Children has to divide their efforts between pushing the Kony campaign forward and preserving their image.

What Invisible Children needs now more than ever is a solid PR strategy to help them with this unpredictable storm. Of course the organization couldn’t precisely prepare for this kind of behavior, which is why a PR strategy is essential. Considering the entire campaign is online, the best approach at this point is implementing online PR strong enough to smooth this over.

What do you think of this entire scenario? Can anyone argue “there is no such thing as bad publicity”?


The Viral Kony Campaign

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Taylor Donohoo in blog 3 Comments

If people are unaware of a problem, how can they help solve it? Social media can certainly assist.

Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization that uses film, creativity, and social action to restore peace in Central Africa, recently leveraged social media to create a successful new movement called Kony 2012.

While a lot of video content on the Internet goes viral starring cute kittens or flash mobs, Invisible Children made a 30 minute film exposing a corrupt warlord from Uganda named Joseph Kony that has received over 55 million views on YouTube alone in just a few days.

Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a group known for its brutality and cruelty. The LRA terrorized Uganda for years and abducted children to create an army of children soldiers. While the LRA is no longer active in Uganda, its violence continues to spread. The purpose of the video made by Invisible Children is to bring this war criminal to justice, and in order to do so, they needed people to know who Kony is.

Pulling at the heartstrings of people worldwide, the video’s primary purpose is clear: to create awareness. With enough awareness, people begin to care, to donate, and change ensues. The video encouraged the audience to be active and get involved by making Kony famous.




Taking their social media strategy even further, the Invisible Children website has a set-up where people can see what to tweet and who to tweet to. The organization clearly identified 20 influential celebrities and 20 different policy makers that users should tweet in order to increase exposure–it worked. The participating “Culturemakers” include the likes of Oprah, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Lady Gaga, Ryan Seacrest, Rihanna, and more. The “Policymakers” that participated include former President George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and the presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The hashtag #StopKony ended up trending worldwide.

The entire awareness campaign can be considered a success. The site crashed and awareness paraphernalia including posters for the campaign are back ordered.

Of course, although the cause is noble, some argue the organization is sketchy. Critics have attempted to highlight Invisible Children’s financial records, showcasing that the organizations delegation of donations isn’t the best. Others point out Kony has been out of commission since 2006 and efforts for change should focus elsewhere.

Despite the criticism, if you consider the entire purpose of the campaign was to create awareness, critics alike are just as responsible for spreading the word and making this social media strategy stellar. And yes, knowledge may be power, but it’s quite clear that social media has power too.