Saturday, August 13, 2011

John&Yoko's BED PEACE (1969): A Social Marketing Project


Since I am blogging (or making journal entries) about the processes involved in the development of my group's social marketing project, I thought about sharing BED PEACE, a 1969 candid film of Yoko Ono and John Lennon. (Free viewing only this weekend. Click here.)

Two things caught my attention:

1. John (and Yoko)'s far-reaching message to peace activists/advocates

And I quote Yoko: "What we said then could have been said now. In fact, there are things that we said then in the film, which may give some encouragement and inspiration to the activists of today... Let’s remember WAR IS OVER if we want it. It’s up to us, and nobody else. John would have wanted to say that."

2. The two were already implementing social marketing way back in the late '60s

The concept of social marketing can be traced back to Gerhard Weibe who was quoted saying, "Why can't you sell brotherhood like you sell soap?" However, I find the fact that icons like John&Yoko were aware of such concept during their time.

This appears in the write up below the video:

"They approached the task with the same entrepreneurial expertise as an advertising agency selling a brand of soap powder to the masses. John & Yoko’s product however was PEACE, not soft soap, and they were determined to use any slogan, event and gimmick in order to persuade the World to buy it."



Image Source: http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbJOxTCXdtAhJj6tTwl6voh6ZdHkTL-wz3P1L_iaTb01se5d1mzfcNbcjHQuQzkprcldhyw7tXidvoPxpe1MuFKQlThlgWqeEqcs6Ufk4tRh_glJrrhXEOrFkd1XBciJ5sGm7wH5XXo1A/s1600/yoko-ono-john-lennon.jpg&imgrefurl=http://breeziway.blogspot.com/2011/04/john-lennon-yoko-onos-wedding-imagine.html&h=662&w=440&sz=41&tbnid=PfGos7NiLwUIJM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=64&prev=/search%3Fq%3Djohn%2Byoko%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=john+yoko&docid=tem0qMxqPnXyXM&hl=tl&sa=X&ei=UtRGTrzHK8qhmQXup6znBg&ved=0CB0Q9QEwAQ&dur=2098

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Time for a tête-à-tête

Upon realizing that some crucial matters cannot be agreed upon through email, the group decided that it's time for us to finally sit down and discuss our project in real time. But before I go ahead with sharing what has transpired, let me clarify first that the group has not had any argument or misunderstanding. The thing is, we found it hard to focus on a particular issue on our topic of choice, Violence Against Women and Children, because of all our exciting thoughts. Aside from this, we had difficulty scheduling a chat session so we had some delays in responses. As a result, we had to utilize short messaging service for us to instantly connect with each other.

Since Len has dropped out of the course while Mia is based in Cagayan Valley, there were only three of us who can meet in Metro Manila. We had to cancel our first schedule as I had to rush my daughter to the hospital. We then re-scheduled the meeting on the next Saturday wherein sadly, Dennis had to beg off due to an urgent work matter.

What was supposed to be a group meeting became a tête-à-tête with Grace. Given that time was our most scarce resource, we thought of just discussing and agreeing on our concept before finally presenting it to the rest of the group. We shall then integrate their comments and recommendations into our social marketing and mobilization plan.

* * *

Meeting Grace was a refreshing experience. Aside from sharing the same passion for DevCom, we found several similarities that made us stay a bit longer with our kids, sipping warm drinks and enjoying our conversation.