A Green Hanukkah? Pick the Right Action!

by Nedra Weinreich | Dec 4, 2007 | Blog, Social Marketing

As the holiday of Hanukkah starts tonight, a new campaign is urging Jews to skip burning a candle during this Festival of Lights. The Green Hanukkia campaign (a hanukkia, or menorah, is the 9-branched candleholder) was founded by a couple of Israelis who do environmental and PR consulting. They say that one candle produces 15 grams of CO2 when burned completely, and the effect of millions of households lighting so many candles over the eight nights of Hanukkah would do “significant damage to the atmosphere.”

Liad Ortar, the campaign’s cofounder, says, “The campaign calls for Jews around the world to save the last candle and save the planet, so we won’t need another miracle.” They are encouraging Jews who are not religious to avoid lighting the hanukkiah at all. For observant Jews, lighting the candles each of the eight nights of Hanukkah (adding one to the total lit for each night) is a religious obligation – not negotiable.

What effect will this campaign have beyond alienating those who are already wary of the anti-religious slant of many on the left, or pushing those who are on the fence religiously further away from their heritage? If they are going to suggest pro-environmental behaviors that are related to religious observance, telling people to break millennia-long traditions that are part of their deepest values — and will make an indetectable impact — is not the action to select.

How about encouraging people to observe the sabbath and avoid driving and using electricity one day a week? Many observant Jews live one-seventh of their life following the kind of carbon-free lifestyle many environmentalists only dream of. Why not work with organizations like Chabad or the Union for Reform Judaism to promote the idea of taking off one day each week without cars, televisions, video games, or other things that use power? Show how a green lifestyle can fit into a religious life — not how people should drop their traditions to do what you want them to do.

Next thing you know, those darn social marketers will start distributing recipes for how to make latkes and sufganiyot without oil. 🙂

I wish you all a very happy Hanukkah, full of light and miracles!

Photo Credit: chaim zvi

A Blog Post You Can’t Refuse

by Nedra Weinreich | Nov 12, 2007 | Blog, Social Marketing

The Marketori Sociali’s PR operations in action.

No, I haven’t been on strike in solidarity with the Writers Guild. I’ve been in Sicily undercover to try to learn more after police discovered the secret Mafia code of conduct upon arresting a top mob Godfather. In case you haven’t seen them, the Ten Mafiosi Commandments are:

1. No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
2. Never look at the wives of friends.
3. Never be seen with cops.
4. Don’t go to pubs and clubs.
5. Always be available for Cosa Nostra, even if your wife’s about to give birth.
6. Appointments must be respected.
7. Wives must be treated with respect.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.
10. People who can’t be part of Cosa Nostra are anyone with a close relative in the police, with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn’t hold to moral values.

You may not know this, but the Mafia has an extensive (and top secret) social marketing department. And now, after weeks of living under omertà in fear of being exposed (they thought I was just a hitman with poor aim*), I can finally reveal the Marketori Sociali Ten Commandments:

1. Do not only promote your product directly to your target audience. A third-party endorsement through word-of-mouth — especially if it is a personal friend — is much more effective.
2. Never look at the wives of friends, unless they are the ones who are more influential in the family health and social behavior decisions.
3. Never be seen with cops, unless you decide that the behaviors you are promoting are better addressed through policy and enforcement.
4. Don’t go to pubs and clubs without market research that demonstrates that those locations are the best places to reach your audience with your message.
5. Always be available to create an environment in your casa that will facilitate behaviors like breastfeeding and putting baby to sleep on his back after your wife gives birth.
6. Your product must be available in the right time and right place to the right people to get any respect.
7. Wives must be treated with respect. The customer is not a moron – she is your wife.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth. Astroturfi and marionetti di calzini are not part of the family business.
9. Money cannot always be appropriated in exchange for adopting the product. Sometimes the price will be time, hassle, social disapproval or leaving old habits like offing people.
10. People who can’t be part of the Marketori Sociali are anyone who does not understand the audience like a close relative, who does not make an offer they can’t refuse, who does not focus on how they want people to behave, or who assumes that the values of the people they are trying to reach are exactly the same as their own.

Now that I’ve revealed these secrets, I’m going to have to lay low for a while. I’m hoping I won’t find an unexpected surprise on my pillow in the morning.

*Disclaimer: I have not, nor would I ever, take out a contract on another human being nor endorse the whacking thereof.

Photo Credit: liliumjoker

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