Sunday, April 22, 2012
Cover The Night Results
After the Kony 2012 YouTube video went viral, I expected the support for it to grow as time went on. Unfortunately, it seems as though the movement has lost its momentum. Friday was the big day for the "Cover The Night" event that the video was promoting. The goal of the event was to cover cities in posters of the infamous warlord to help pressure the U.S. government to aid in the arrest of Joseph Kony. But in the end, the event did not end up producing the intended flood of Kony posters in many cities, including Madison.
As I got up on Saturday this weekend, I expected to see tons of red Kony posters everywhere. It could have been my high expectations, but it looked as though the event had not gained the members it needed to result in a successful impact. By the end of my Saturday I counted only 3 posters. Most likely some areas are covered more than others. However, I expected the campus to contain plenty of students willing to participate. It's also important to note that Fridays are obviously a big night for partying. I'm also guessing that having the event on 4/20 didn't exactly help their cause, but I think the biggest issue was timing. The YouTube video just came out too early, and by the time Cover The Night came around all the hype was gone. There just seemed to be nothing else to keep the public interest. I think that the video should have come out closer towards the date of Cover The Night. I remember when I first saw the video for Kony. I was so pumped, and I just wanted to grab posters and start putting them on people's faces. I was completely convinced that I would participate in Cover The Night. For me, the controversy regarding the Kony campaign's use of funds and the huge time gap drained my interest. Were any of you guys planning on Covering The Night?
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Three poster huh? Thats three more than I saw but than again it's pretty much what I'd expected. I could actually see people around me growing more and more apathetic about the whole thing. Initially people were all for it or all against it, then some people switched to being against it, and then expectedly people stopped caring altogether. (Funny thing is I didn't even remember that cover the night was supposed to be April 20th until I saw this post.)
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you mention that the video came out to early, but I'm glad it did. This gave people time to actually formulate an opinion on it based on something other then the KONY 2012 video--an opinion based on more then their emotions.
If they cannot maintain the public interest for longer than a month then perhaps they should reevaluate their strategy or more radically find a new cause.
I completely agree with you. Originally, I clicked yes to attend the event on Facebook. However, as it got closer I heard nothing about it and on the next day, I didn't see that many posters out either. I think it definitely is because the YouTube video came out too early. They should've did a follow up video or something if they were going to release it so early.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more! I originally watched the video without a filter; I never questioned the legitimacy of the organization, I just saw an injustice painted in front of me and I got incredibly pumped up about helping the cause. I forwarded the video in email to my family, and went online to order the bracelet in order to raise awareness and donate to the cause. But as more time passed, I started paying attention to the backlash, and the more and more I heard about it, the more I annoyed I got with all of it, and the less I cared. In that first 24 hours of seeing the video, I was SET on making posters, banners, ANYTHING and getting out there to paint the town, and I truly believed that a place like Madison would be bombarded with support. I'm not quite sure where the mistake was, why we all lost interest and why it did't seem to have the impact that we all expected. I'm not sure if I'd saying it's an issue of timing, but I think that the main issue was the questionality of the organization Invisible Children; it's hard to stay passionate about a cause when the organization supporting it is in question.
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