Our senior writer, Susan Balaban worked for Foote, Cone & Belding/Chicago before coming to work for See3. During her tenure at FCB/Chicago she rose to Vice President/Creative Director, working on nearly every brand and client in the agency. She is most proud of her accomplishments for two of FCB’s pro-bono accounts, Earth Share and The United Way. Both received double-digit donation increases and local and international awards. Her work for Earth Share also garnered the Ad Council’s highest donated television media dollars, and was chosen as one of five print campaigns to run in the New York Times each year.
So it has been with great pleasure that we here at See3 have been able to help out Earth Share and the Ad Council extend their reach online around Earth Day. Over the past few days many green blogs that had never heard of Earth Share wrote about the campaign and their video Promise.
What’s your message? It might depend on your number–501(c)3 or 501(c)4 or 527.
Because this is an election year, many of our projects have a political bent. But how much of one? Well, that depends on the type of nonprofit status a client holds. Most of our clients are 501(c)3s, but some are 501(c)4s or 527s. The degree to which they can speak out on political issues or campaigns is determined by their designation. Some of our clients, like the Sierra Club, have all three designations, in which case, their money has to be divided into different funds with c3, c4, or 527 designations, and used appropriately. (There are actually 28 different 501c designations! But we’re only going to talk about three here).
501(c)3s are defined by the IRS as charitable, religious, scientific or educational organizations and mostly consist of public or private foundations such as Red Cross or Habitat for Humanity. The money they use for media is generally to educate viewers about issues or an organization’s mission, with or without a call to action at the end, such as “join us” or “donate now”. Although they can heighten public awareness about certain issues, they aren’t allowed to show political affiliation or urge people to vote for or against a specific candidate. They can only use a small percentage of funds to lobby. They can issue a “Tell Congress you’re fed up” statement, as it is not specific to any candidate, or release a non-partisan report on a politically charged issue such as global warming, but they must stop short of advocating for or against a particular candidate.
What we hear often is that many (c)3s don’t go as far as they can because they worry that if they violate the restrictions, they will lose their nonprofit status.
c4 funds are different. 501(c)4 organizations are described in the IRS code as non-profits that promote social welfare; but unlike a (c)3, a 501(c)4 organization can lobby for specific policy change. Examples of prominent c4s include NARAL Pro Choice America and Moveon.org Civic Action. Here is an example of the difference: A 501(c)3 can tell you how important it is that you use your right to vote, but a c4 can ask you to sign a petition to Congress about a specific piece of legislation. However, c4 money cannot be used in election campaigns on behalf of or against any candidates.
A 527 group (or 527 funds) can influence the nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates for public office. 527 money can be used on behalf of or against candidates; for instance, Political Action Committees (PACs) are 527s. Here is where it gets confusing if it isn’t already. A 527 is NOT allowed to coordinate with a specific election campaign. Rather, it must be an “interest group” who is advocating on issues or mobilizing voters. Not surprisingly, sometimes 527s get into trouble for pushing the limits. For example, in the 2004 election cycle, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was a famous 527 that was eventually accused of coordinating with George Bush’s campaign in its anti-John Kerry ads during the presidential campaign.
Are you confused yet? Well, let me tell you, it can be hairy trying to work out messaging for these various organizations or funds in the video and social media marketing campaigns we undertake on their behalf. But we really enjoy the challenge and are happy to be doing a lot of work this cycle around the critical elections this fall.
One of the issues people have with Second Life is that it’s not so easy to use. You find yourself naked and alone and you have to figure out how to simply move around.
Mitch Kapor and our friends over at Kapor Enterprises have developed a new hands free interface for Second Life. Using a web camera that tracks your movements, you can basically lean and move as if you were on a Segway and move around Second Life. Have a look here at Handsfree3d.
When you hire a video vendor, your contract should state that you own the material the vendor is creating. “Work for hire” is the legal term. And you should specify that you will own the copyright and that your vendor will transfer the ownership to you of anything created in the project.
What happens if you don’t do that? Well… If you are Wal-Mart, you get really screwed.
Wal-Mart’s internal meetings are on display in three decades worth of videos made by a Kansas production company scrambling to stay in business after Wal-Mart stopped using the firm.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. dropped longtime contractor Flagler Productions in 2006. In response to losing its biggest customer, the small company has opened its archive, for a fee, to researchers who include plaintiffs’ lawyers and union critics seeking clips of unguarded moments at the world’s largest retailer.
Those moments never meant for public display include a scene of male managers parading in drag at an executive meeting, a clip used by union-backed critics at Wal-Mart Watch for a recent advertisement castigating the retailer’s attitude toward female employees.
“The videos provide insight into the company’s real corporate culture when they’re not in the public eye,” Wal-Mart Watch spokeswoman Stacie Lock Temple said Tuesday.
Much of the interest in the candid videos is coming from plaintiff lawyers pursuing cases against Wal-Mart.
“The rarity is that it exists at all,” said Brad Seligman, lead attorney in a massive class-action lawsuit that alleges Wal-Mart discriminated systemically against female employees.
“Once in a while you come upon documents that are helpful in a case,” the Berkeley, Calif.-based lawyer added. “What’s amazing about this is that this company has a video record going back many years showing senior management in at times fairly candid situations.”
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“Needless to say, we did not pay Flagler Productions to tape internal meetings with this aftermarket in mind,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore said.
She declined to comment on any legal steps the company might be considering.
Flagler says Wal-Mart has no legal power over the videos because the two sides did not sign a contract when founder Mike Flagler was hired in the 1970s to produce Wal-Mart meetings and management conferences.
A couple of years ago someone said to me, Michael, why doesn’t Flickr, which already allows for uploading of photos just add video. Wouldn’t that be a smart business thing to do and a natural, given that they already have the key elements in place. Well, yeah.
Late for sure, today Flickr launches Flickr Video.
This is not YouTube. Flickr has a limit of 90-seconds for video and what it looks like is that they are going only for those videos you record on digital camera, not all out movies.
In a bid to broaden Flickr if not actually crush YouTube, Yahoo is adding videos to what has just been a photo-sharing site.
The change, which the company plans to launch publicly later Tuesday, is a modest but significant extension of Flickr’s features. The videos, limited to 90 seconds and 150MB, will be shown as thumbnails alongside users’ photos, and will inherit all the features of photos stored on the site: users can add comments, captions, comments, geotags, and privacy restrictions so only friends or family may view the videos, the company said.
The product is not a YouTube clone by any means. The Flickr team, led by Director of Product Management Kakul Srivastava, spent considerable time debating the feature set and user experience internally before launch.
The goal is not to have people upload long videos or clips of copyrighted material. To reinforce that, videos can be only 90 seconds in length and 150MB in size (however these limitations may be changed later, Srivastava says).
In a phone prebriefing, I was very critical of the length limitation. But the team then brought me in for a demo and I was sold. The short clips are a perfect compliment to event photos, in my opinion.
I saw this morning a video about what one Lubavitch man has done to turn around a public school in New York. This is a story of passion and dedication and of not judging people by how they look. It is also a story of hope for an American melting pot — a salad really — where people who come from different backgrounds can find common ground in helping our children succeed.
I received the link to this video in an email, that was sent to many people, forwarded many times. It is a classic viral video story. The fact that it started on TV is irrelevant. You and the organizations you care about can tell stories. If those stories are compelling, they will also get sent in an email and attract attention to your work and your programs.
