ColaLife features on Buckminster Fuller blog
April 27, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Image credit: Tim Dench
Please show your support by commenting on the ColaLife blog post on the Buckminster Fuller Fellowship blog. It’s dead easy. You can do it anonymously and you don’t have to register. Let’s see if we can create a bit of a buzz while Buckminster Fuller decide who’s in the finals!
Thanks.
ColaLife sneaks onto Amazon
April 22, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Do a search on ColaLife in Amazon and this book pops up. Why? Because its author, Chris Arnold, is a ColaLife supporter and writes about ColaLife. He says:
FROM HUMANITARISM TO PLANETARISM
<snip>
The power of the web for good and bad is just amazing. What starts as a small group can soon become massive and so influential big brands have to listen. One example is ColaLife, created by Simon Berry. It all started as an idea on Facebook, and exploded. Berry has been trying to get Coke to use their vast distribution network to help deliver life-saving medications and information in developing countries. This concept, ColaLife, could help save hundreds of thousands of people (www.colalife.org).
Amusingly, one of Coke’s great straplines, when translated into one of the Chinese languages, reads ‘ Bring your dead back to life’. Now, more seriously, brands like Coke, Pepsi (and many other mass distributed products) could soon be the new saviours, preventing millions of deaths from water-related illnesses. According to WaterAid, one billion people lack access to clean water and every day 5,000 children die as a result of drinking dirty water. In many regions of the world, people have to walk miles to get water. Water that’s often dirty, polluted or infected with disease, and it’s often shared with animals.
Quoting Simon Berry: ‘Our idea is that Coca-Cola could use their distribution channels (which are amazing in developing countries) to distribute rehydration salts to the people that need them desperately. Maybe by dedicating one compartment in every 10 crates as a life as the “lifesaving compartment”? ‘ Gives new meaning to Coke’s famous straplines ‘Life tastes good’ and ‘Coke adds life’.
WaterAid is not a great fan of distributing rehydration salts for treating diarrhoea (it’s a short-term solution) preferring to educate people about hygeine and putting in proper sanitation and clean water supplies. But Simon’s campaign is gathering a mass of supporters by using the power of Web 2.0 and social networking to spread the word and create a digital community of activists. (Almost 4,000 joined the open group on Facebook).
This case illustrates how one person can very quickly gain enough momentum to be as powerful as a major charity in applying pressure to large corporations. This is a new concept of David and Goliath. Whereas the old model placed charities as the champions of a particular issue or cause, now any passionate, driven member of the public can soon gather a force behind them and push for change. There is some evidence that issue [web]sites are gaining more followers than traditional charity sites in the States. Could common causes replace charitable organisations as the main influencers in the future?
We are very grateful to Chris for drawing attention to our cause but inevitably things have moved on:
- Soon after the start of the campaign we dropped the idea of removing a bottle and instead have designed the AidPod which clips between the necks of crated bottles and so make use of unused space in the crate.
- And we now have around 12,000 (not 4,000) followers signed up online. As I type the numbers are:
- The original Facebook group: 8,774
- The new Facebook page: 2,574
- Twitter: 1,009
- Flickr: 411
[Neither ColaLife nor Simon Berry benefit from sales of this book].
An evening at Hult
April 21, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Illustration by Oana Mondoc
On Monday (19/4/10) I was invited back to the Hult International Business School in London to hear four proposals to raise the profile of ColaLife. These had been put together by four teams made up from the 40 international students from 25 different countries. It’s amazing what can happen when 40 young people put their heads together. The ideas included: A Facebook Game; A make your own animation challenge; A Flash Mob (watch this space) and a ‘Recycle for ColaLife scheme.
The above image came from one of the ideas and struck a chord. I really think there is mileage in this. The idea that the AidPod is the heart of a Cola crate. An idea worth developing I think. I will be reporting on the ideas we take forward here on the blog.
Meet the Cultural Engineers
April 12, 2010 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
Image based on an original photograph by Bertie Borésdon
This is a bit of an honour. Honda are launching a new car (it is a hybrid!). The stuff of dreams. To accompany the launch they have recruited a bunch of cultural engineers (aka dreamers and innovators) and are planning to publish a limited edition book describing their work. I will be featured along with the ColaLife project. Anyway, the build up started today with the launch of the ‘Dream Factory’ website.
Could you put a ColaLife poster in your workplace or community?
April 2, 2010 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
A couple of ColaLife Facebook fans have asked where you can buy ColaLife posters. Well, you can’t at the moment BUT you can download a PDF and print them yourself. It would be great if ColaLife supporters could spread the word by placing a mini poster in their workplace and/or community. Please click on the link below to download the size you want:
For supporters in the USA: 2 x half letter posters printed side by side on a single sheet
For supporters elsewhere: 2 x A5 posters printed side by side on a single A4 sheet
Could you put a poster in your workplace?
What others are saying about ColaLife- ColaLife on Flickr
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