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August 21, 2003

Great Rally Fundraiser Idea: Mini-Megaphones

Turns out Jennifer (the visitor who thinks I am a freakshow for my doggie hit man idea), came to my site looking for great cheap campaign ideas! I am the number one hit when you google for that term! Things are going to start happening to me ... now.

Now I kinda feel obligated to come up with a great cheap campaign idea, but I don't have any at the moment. (I think it's kind of funny to google for adjectives like "great" btw.)

Instead, I'll present this idea in honor of Bush's visit today, which I just came back from protesting and people are still in the streets protesting now. (I came home to write thank you notes -- which I'll do as soon as I finish this -- and things seemed pretty much over, although now I'm hearing on KBOO and seeing on TV that there are still protesters milling around. I gather there was some pepper spraying, too. Portland Indy Media will probably have the full scoop.)

OK -- so my idea for a rally fundraiser. I had this idea first as a way for Jobs with Justice to raise money for a better megaphone, but you could use it for other groups as well (like the Radical Cheerleaders, for instance) -- and of course you wouldn't even have to do it with as a for-money model -- it's just my natural instinct to come up with profit models.

So what you'd do is take some box board -- like old cereal boxes, fer instance -- and make a cone which you'd tape together. There you'd have your basic mini-megaphone form which you'd decorate with the words for chants and slogans and information appropriate to your cause or rally. My thought was that you'd make xeroxes and then paste them onto the cone form with flour paste -- you know, using a basic paper mache method. You'd poke small holes at the top, put string through the holes so people could wear it around their necks, and there you'd have a cute little mini-megaphone to hand out or sell at rallies.

My idea was that you'd make them very cute and artistic. Maybe have a mini-megaphone making party with your friends. And then you'd do different ones for different rallies -- if they were cool, people would want to collect them all! (This idea was again particularly tailored to Jobs with Justice, which gets you to rallies for a real smorgasbord of causes and coalitions -- it's one of the things I love about it!).

And then at rallies, a lot more people would be equipped to lead chants because they'd have ideas in front of them and a little mini-megaphone to make them more audible. It would democratize the whole leading a chant thing.

I guess you could use this as a campaign idea, too, although it seems like campaigns are more about having one person speak rather than having the crowd chant.

Posted by mary at August 21, 2003 3:15 PM

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