Viral Facebook Campaigns

By now, I think we all know what this is about.  You change your facebook profile picture to a picture of a cartoon character from your childhood and then you end child abuse.  Or something like that.

Is the bear upset about pedophilia, or the lack thereof?  I find this confusing.

Not unlike the the "I like it on the..." campaign of earlier this year (It had to do with breast cancer.  If you click here to read about it, you will also get to see boobies!!) these "awareness-raising" viral campaigns are nothing more than what some are calling "slacktivism"- joining groups, participating in internet memes that don't actually do anything but rather, allow you to feel good about yourself by doing virtually nothing.  (Hint- if you can change your profile picture with one hand, you have your other hand free to masturbate!  Everyone wins!... Unless you're looking at pictures of little kids- in that case, you've kind of just canceled yourself out.)

"Stop touching your root chakra while watching Justin Bieber videos!"- no matter what you call it, it's wrong!

These campaigns claim to "raise awareness."  Y'know, for those of you unaware of breast cancer, or child abuse.  Here's what seems contradictory- with the "I like it on the..." campaign, statuses were changed by women only.  The idea was to "intrigue" men, to have them ask what their status was about, or perhaps use it as their opportunity to proposition their crush to finally have sex with them on the coat rack. (See?  It doesn't even make sense!  Nowhere you like putting your purse is somewhere you'd also like having sex!  Unless you like leaving your purse on the mad tea party ride at Disneyland.)

Don't ask me how I know this, but I would highly recommend sanitizing that purple tea cup if I were you...

How often do we hear about women getting ahead in their career by sleeping their way to the top?  Or being accused of getting promoted because they are more attractive than their possibly-more-qualified colleague?  We want to be taken seriously, to not be seen as sexual objects, to not have our looks, our bodies, our sexuality a determining factor in our rise to the top of our careers, or the causes for which we fight.  And yet, the most effective way someone can think of to bring awareness to this campaign is to create sexually suggestive facebook statuses?  Isn't this pretty much saying "hey! We want you to care about this disease!  And since we're women, we'll use our sexuality to achieve that!" 

Also, who is the target audience here?  Since all women were in on this, were men the ones to be targeted?  And if so, why?  Are men less aware of breast cancer?  Do we want men to donate more money, because we assume their love of boobies could save millions of cancer victims?

And why even alienate men?  They can also be diagnosed with breast cancer.  And society is A LOT less aware of that.  I found this site.  They promote the pink and blue ribbon, for male breast cancer.  How many of us have seen that?  How many pink and blue items are sold every year to raise money for male breast cancer?  Why are we raising awareness for a disease that everyone is very aware of, and what type of awareness are we raising?  To learn about breast cancer?  How to test for it?  Who is most at risk?  Or is it about donating money, or participating in walks?  And if someone inquires about my status, do I have the knowledge and facts to get that person to actually get up and do something for the cause?

  And what about this cartoon image campaign?  The idea is to "change your profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday (Dec. 6) there should be no human faces on facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is a campaign to stop violence against children."

Really?!

This campaign is supposed to stop violence against children?!  HOW?!  Imagine I'm a pedophile.  I see a picture of a Care Bear.  Do I think a) "oh wow, being a kid is really great and innocent, I should stop molesting them" or b)"mmm.  Care Bear.  mmm. Kids watching Care Bears.  mmmm. Must go find a child."  And if I'm not a pedophile (which I'm not, just so we're all clear...) I obviously am against violence against children!  I don't need a facebook profile picture to remind me of that!  And, much like the "I like it on the..." campaign- what type of awareness is being raised?  Is this to help children who have been victims of child abuse?  Is it to help would-be attackers get psychological treatment?  Are we trying to raise money for victims of child abuse?  Are we trying to teach kids how to be on the look-out for potential child abusers?  Once I see the image, and think about child abuse, then what?  
Well, then I probably look at more boobies.

Aaaahhh, no, not those ones!!  WTF?!!?  "Hillary's New Look for the Primaries"- I'll say!

Again, mere slacktivism.  We like to feel that we're doing something but, y'know, just... without really having to do anything.  At least some people were brave and courageous enough to stop tweeting for their cause.  Which is... Oh man, I forget.  Something about Kim Kardashian being tired, I want to say?

"Should I keep sleeping, or wake up, tweet about sleeping, and then keep sleeping??"

If only everyone just complained about this stuff on their blogs.  We'd all be so much happier.