Saturday, March 22, 2014

Why the 'no make up selfies' campaign raised £2m

The 'selfie' has reached a new zenith this week, thanks to the "No Make Up Selfie for Cancer Awareness" campaign which has seen £2m raised for Cancer Research UK in the space of just a few days. But how did it happen?

The #nomakeupselfie started trending on Tuesday as women posted pictures of themselves without make up on Twitter and Facebook, and urged their friends to do the same.
Cancer awareness became the theme, selfie posters pledged donations to cancer charities and CRUK set up a text number to make donating even easier.
But the cancer charity did not kick-start the trend - it grew organically, making a huge impact on social media and getting attention in national newspapers and on radio and TV news.
So why did it go viral? Was it all about raising awareness and money for life-saving research?
No-one quite knows how the trend started. It may have been related to the Oscars selfie featuring a gaggle of gorgeous A-list actors which was retweeted endlessly following the film awards in early March.
Or it may have been a reaction to the negative comments directed towards 81-year-old actress Kim Novak following the same event.
People lined up to sympathise with her by posting pictures of themselves in (mostly) unflattering lights.
With hundreds of thousands of donations, 826,000 likes on Facebook and 140,000 followers on Twitter, Cancer Research UK confessed to being "overwhelmed with donations and support".
But not everyone is behind the idea that women revealing their real face is something brave or altruistic.

More on: BBC

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