press
Press section
Make Radio History—05.11.05
The campaign that just won’t go away
It’s been described as a futile battle, a waste of time and even meaningless. But despite the controversy the Make Radio History campaign continues to gain ground, defying all predictions and surprising even it’s harshest critics.
It’s now over 3 months since the launch of Make Radio History and experts have been forced to backtrack on their earlier claims that MRH was simply “a flash in the pan”. John Chundy, a leading campaignologist, explained:
“When I described Make Radio History as here today gone tomorrow I obviously didn't mean literally tomorrow as in Sunday. I was using tomorrow as a metaphor to mean the future. So Make Radio History is here today but will be gone tomorrow i.e. some time in the future. When that time is I cannot say. It may be many years, even decades away.”
With increasing popularity the experts are now having to take a serious look at the MRH phenomenom. How did it begin? What has it achieved? How does one explain it’s unprecedented success?
“Every death contains the seeds of new life.”
Some have argued Make Radio History was born in the spectacular wake of Edinburgh’s failed Make Poverty History march. But it wasn’t until some weeks later that a small group of activists got together to ask themselves two simple questions: What went wrong? and Where do we go from here?
After weeks of careful research and in depth analysis they finally came up with some answers. Answers that cut straight to the chase:
“People are bored with poverty issues.”
“It's depressing.”
“Starving kids are just so 90s.”
So, motivated by the ethic of recycling, they took all that was good about MPH—the logo, the white wrist bands, the T-shirts, mugs, underwear and other money making paraphernalia—but dropped the idea of poverty and replaced it with something more fun: radio. It was a simple yet devestatingly effective strategy.
The result was an instant success. People were curious. Here was a campaign that was not afraid to raise difficult questions. Make Radio History? What did it mean? People were unsure but somehow it didn’t seem to matter. Such questions were wide of the mark. They missed the point entirely. This was a campaign that was fresh, a campaign that was cool, a campaign for the 21st century. The public wanted in and, more importantly, this time they were prepared to pay for it. The Make Radio History campaign was not only alive. It was kicking.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE. MAKE RADIO HISTORY.
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