Educational Marketing Group is once again seeking nominations for the International Brand Master Award. Each year, EMG sponsors the event to showcase the talents of some of your higher ed colleagues who are doing great things to help their institutions build their brands. Last year’s winner was John Lichtenberg of Walsh College.
Know someone who has what it takes to be the next International Brand Master? Nominate him or her. But hurry. The deadline to submit a nomination is Dec. 16.
So if a couple of Oberlin alumni can celebrate the f-bomb to promote their alma mater, I figure it’s OK for me to get all potty-mouthed about a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of toilets.
A graduate of the university where I’m employed — Gary White, who co-founded water.org along with Matt Damon — is involved in an effort to raise awareness about one of the leading causes of sickness and disease: fecal matter. White’s organization has teamed up with several others to promote World Toilet Day, which is this Friday, Nov. 19.
It’s a pretty brilliant awareness-raising campaign the organizers have going on. Atop the WTD homepage, you’ll see this attention-grabbing call to action:
Then more from the website:
Each year on November 19 we spotlight the global sanitation crisis and the collective efforts underway to get solutions to those in need. Unlike the water crisis, we’ll need to go door-to-door to solve this massive issue. Left unsolved, life without a toilet causes shame, missed opportunities, disease, and all too often death.
Social media is a big part of the campaign. White and others involved in this effort are asking people to donate their Twitter status and Facebook updates to “talk shit all week” about this issue. They’re even tagging tweets from the @water account with #talkshit. (Here’s a typical @water tweet.) I’ve donated my Twitter status to the cause. You can, too.
In a world where we spend a lot of time awash in crappy attempts at marketing, you now have a chance to be part of a fantastic (not craptastic) one that could make a big difference to people around the world.
Andy writes! 