Spitballs & Slavery

I was recently asked the following:

What social problem is most compelling to you? Pick one or more organizations to partner with to address this social issue. What would you do? How would your solution engage a broad and relevant community, who would benefit, and how it would ultimately drive impact.

I think it's important to mix realism with your altruism, i.e. "How would this actually work?"  Utility doesn't always have a place in the brainstorming stages of an idea, though--I used this exercise as an opportunity to stargaze a bit:

Human trafficking might be the biggest elephant in the middle of our collective global room.  Estimates of the number of people categorized as “slaves” in the world right now (individuals recruited to be controlled and held captive for the purpose of exploitation) is anywhere between 12 and 30 million.  These are among the highest figures in history and they are astonishing.

There seems to be a comparative lack of attention aimed at this $9 billion industry. Be it the disturbing nature of human trafficking, the perception that slavery happens “elsewhere,” its persistent, un-topical nature, or paralysis in the face of such a deep-seated problem, mainstream media just doesn’t seem to highlight human trafficking in the way does many other critical social issues.  Anyone who reads Ishmael Beah’s child soldier memoir, A Long Way Gone, Aaron Cohen’s one-man anti-sex trade crusade, Slave Hunter, or finds out that upwards of 15,000 people are trafficked into first-world countries like the United States each year would be hard pressed to keep a poker face. So how do we throw up the bat signal?

Finding the right nonprofits to involve in a funding/awareness campaign would be the easy piece.  CAST LA is a wonderful organization specializing in helping trafficking survivors back onto their feet whilst raising awareness about modern day slavery.  They may not be international enough for the scale of this campaign--Not For Sale would be.  They focus on stark, digestible statistics to illustrate reactive and preventative efforts to get survivors and would-be victims into stable employment situations.  Slavery Footprint has the most brand recognition of the three. Their “How many slaves work for you?” calculator is powerful in its ability to provoke immediately actionable changes to daily behavior and consumption habits.

The critical piece would be engaging the right brand partners to associate with an issue as intense as this one.  Three good ones come to mind:  Toyota, Red Bull, and Quiksilver.  These brands are bold and youth-oriented, giving them the ear of an audience capable of hanging with and advocating for something as heavy as slavery awareness.  Initiative breakdown:

WHAT

Filmed surf event in the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia.  HD footage by Red Bull, unlocked with donations matched by all three partners online.  The location itself is a statement; Southeast Asia as a region houses some of the most entrenched trafficking pipelines in the world.

WHY...

… Toyota?  Large market share in Southeast Asia.  Rugged location allows them to showcase 4x4 lifestyle offerings.  Would likely be interested in an opportunity to dig further into the surf/alternative sport market.

… Red Bull?  This is the online publicity vehicle.  Anything produced by Red Bull in the alternative sports space is sought after by fans (e.g. redbullstratos.com, artofflightmovie.com).  Red Bull turns this into a mid- long-term campaign that lives well beyond the actual tentpole event.

… Quiksilver?  Quiksilver has a history of philanthropic initiatives, mostly within the eco space.  Aside from providing big name riders, Quiksilver may be interested in giving back to one of the wave-desirable regions on which the surf industry focuses quite a bit of attention.

VALUES

Play globally, change globally.  Abolish slavery everywhere.

VISIBILITY

The aim would be to engage alternative sport/stunt video interest online.  (32 million views for the Red Bull Stratos project video, as a point of reference)

CONNECTIVITY

Tight, Instagram-lead social media integration with participating nonprofits and sponsors.

COLLECTIVE ACTION

The ground swell occurs within the alternative sports community, then continue virally depending on the originality and wow-factor of the footage.

Now That Our Jeans Can't Get Any Tighter

Blame it on turning 30, working in tech, getting married, living in Venice, friends with kids, a sudden interest in fish oil and comfortable insoles, or maybe overhearing someone at Coachella refer to Nirvana as "classic rock," but I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be relevant.

Before you roll your eyes, keep in mind that your faithful correspondent grew up in surf culture, cashed out for indie rock, merged with a ton of dot-commery, and now finds himself three blocks north of what's become some sort of yipster Graceland on the bleeding edge of Los Angeles. "Relevance" comes up a lot for me.

If being relevant = being cool = a strong portfolio of socio-cultural currency, most scenes glob a hefty premium on stockpiling that currency.  Whether you're currency-fat or currency-lean, on the outside looking in, or on the inside looking bored, the concept of being cool need not always be front-of-mind (I think you're in trouble if it is), but it's important to at least know it's there.

There's a dose of emptiness in this kind of richness. Being cool requires a lot of work and the gains are scant depending on what kind of currency you're after.  By and large, when you picture what makes a hipster tick, the posturing and emperor's clothes that come to mind are kind of their own rewards.  And when it comes to things that matter – things like good citizenship – apathy is still a lot safer than caring.  It just feels so good not to care. And it pairs well with American Spirits.

But what if caring was on-trend?  What if instead of withdrawing from the mainstream conversation, the subculture-appropriate thing was to engage in it with the intention of bettering things for other people?

Folks in their 30s are capable of getting it (and many do), but it's not really second nature. We grew up with D.A.R.E., Save the Whales, The More You Know, etc. We recycle and wear our seat belts, often in an I-was-raised-Catholic-so-I'm-still-Catholic-but-not-really-religious kind of way. A lot of this do-goodery was just starting to get big when we were in slap bracelets and Rollerblades.  We were guinea pigs for goodness; hence, we kind of poke at it, intrigued, academic.  And that's fine – sweeping edits to the zeitgeist need to start somewhere. So be it if that somewhere is well-meaning but detached. We're also about to start running the world, which lays a nice foundation for the ones after us, the part of the generation I foresee really changing the game.

They're in college and a few years out of it, dreamy, can't remember when they didn't need to separate cardboard from plastic.  Altruism is hardwired into their thinking – not, like, an appreciated thing in a zoo. Idealism and risk-taking on their own aren't unique for people this age. What sets these kids apart is at once their nemesis and catalyst: a bleak economy with tiny job prospects to match. Getting a "real job" right now is terrifying.

What could possibly be good about that? Some might say that kind of fear ropes fresh grads into jobs they hate (if they can find one), choking their ideals, making them lame flag bearers for this idea of caring as cachet. But what if the economic necessity of job-having morphed into a good thing, really did turn out to be the mother of invention? What if it pushed the up-and-comers over the hump of complacency, closer to founding that B corp, organizing that student coalition, signing up with Teach for America, or something equally demanding of the kind of commitment that comes only from having no other options?

Daunted by such a thing, my and the generation before mine might have gone back to school for basket weaving or something. Tried to fit into a structure that we hoped would tell us to get out of the rut. The new blood has a fresher role model to emulate in these rough situations, though – one that deals in tenacity and brains as its currency, one composed of another breed of meaning-based hipster: the entrepreneur.

No, every early 20-something startup mogul is not in it to change the world for the better (cue Gavin Belson quote). But there's no question they've made it cool to get shit done. That's a beautiful thing when you consider the kind of bootstrapping it will take for their do-gooding counterparts to breathe life into things like sustainable civil engineering, corporate social responsibility, microfinance, education, starting a movement, giving a damn, and a zillion other philanthropic opportunities teed up for the dedication of the next generation.

A lot of folks think it's silly to be a cultural optimist in this day and age. That may be so, but the reasons to be one right now are starting to stack up. Given a few more years and another breakthrough or two, I might just be convinced.