Make Poverty History – Passion Statement
Rob Mitchell, Business Week
The charities we choose to support say a lot about us. Consciously or not, we prioritize and decide which charities mean the most to us, just like we do with a consumer brand.
Occasionally a single cause captures the public imagination, as Make Poverty History (MPH) has; its symbolic white wristband has become as ubiquitous as iPod earphones or the latest Harry Potter book, and is in itself a fashion statement (or as Richard Curtis, one of the UK charity’s patrons, prefers to call it, a “passion statement”).
MPH is a charity set up to lobby the G8 summit to increase aid and reduce debt in Africa. To raise awareness, Nelson Mandela spoke to a crowd filling out Trafalgar Square in London in March earlier this year. While to a spectator the patchwork of banners from many different charities, trade unions and even churches displayed across the square may imply that the simple message of MPH had been hijacked by a multitude of different agendas, this diversity is the whole point of MPH: it is in fact a brand front representing over 460 member organizations.
“Brand” and “charity” — many people still feel uncomfortable uttering these words in the same breath. Some of the members that make up Make Poverty History’s coalition still feel uneasy about combining the two. But as Live8 (a worldwide series of concerts staged to focus the world’s attention on decisions being made at the G8 summit) proved in July, Make Poverty History is a brand, and a powerful one at that.
Make Poverty History is the UK arm of a wider, global coalition. The Global Call to Action Against Poverty (G-CAP) was launched in September 2004. It’s led by Oxfam, Action Aid, and many less well-known national organizations. Most countries (Australia and Denmark among them) have adopted the MPH nametag to front their campaign; the US equivalent campaign is called One. However, all the national campaigns share the same aim and have adapted corporate branding techniques to get their messages heard.