using our powers for good, instead of evil
Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 11:34PM 
I know, I've used that line far too may times...
I'm working on some update communications for the Haiti disaster for World Vision tonight, and getting some perspective on what happened, and how the world and our client responded. It actually amazed and humbled me all over again – for instance, stories like the WV staffer who spent five hours getting home to his family after the quake, then turned around and was at work at 7 a.m. next morning, getting ready to deliver whatever medical supplies they could find. He literally saved people's lives.
Compared to that, we've been sitting on our asses doing nothing. But our team actually has worked tirelessly over the past two weeks and it's occurring to me that we're a part of this enormous effort – we've helped WV raise the funds to respond to this catastrophe. All the emails, radio spots, banners and DM we executed in virtually no time at all helped our client raise over $10 million. I don't say that to boast, but to congratulate a team that has done whatever was asked and much more. They knew what was at stake, they understood that there was a whole other dimension to our work.
It also adds a sense of pressure, knowing that failure has consequences. Of course failure has consequences for every client – sales mean jobs, and jobs mean mortgages payments and food – but for World Vision, the relationship between our work and the results is particularly immediate. The faces of the kids from the village near Koutiala where we shot our spots are all the incentive I need to consider all the angles, to take a second look at all the work, and wonder how we can make it better.
Haiti, World Vision
Reader Comments (1)
I had the opportunity to work on the WV Haiti campaign this week. I didn't leave the office today feeling hollowed out from a week of 'do it fasters' or 'do it betters'. Today I left feeling that I helped in the forming of a genuine message: Please give. And although working through photos of anguish and suffering; the simplicity and honesty of that message buoyed me up.