Make Poverty History - Creating an epidemic brand

Bridget Angear and Tom Johnstone

This paper describes the 2005 campaign by the Comic Relief coalition to 'Make Poverty History'. It demonstrates how the unifying idea was built and communicated to key individuals attending the G8 conference, and how high-profile events, featuring 140 NGOs and figures such as Nelson Mandela, Bono and Sir Bob Geldof, were used to communicate the message, all with no budget.
Agency: Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO/PHDAuthors: Bridget Angear and Tom Johnstone

Make Poverty History – Creating an epidemic brand

Comic Relief on Behalf of the Make Poverty History Coalition

INTRODUCTION

The chances are you've heard of Make Poverty History – the year long campaign that ran in 2005 to persuade the G81 to commit to policies that could end extreme poverty in the developing world.

It's also likely that you know something about the increase of $50 billion of aid every year2and cancellation of third world debt that was pledged at the G8 summit in...

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