#nomakeupselfie - pointless or productive?
20th March 2014
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There is no doubt that your Facebook and Instagram feeds have been filling up with no make-up selfies in the name of cancer awareness over the last couple of days, and the question of whether it is glorified narcissism or a productive campaign that will actually help increase awareness and funds for Cancer Research is rightly still being asked.
I’ve seen a lot of statuses and tweets from people complaining that others are just uploading pictures in order to receive compliments on how naturally pretty they are and that we already know about cancer and so it’s pointless to take part.
To me these seems like the most ridiculous things you could ever say – of course some people expect compliments, but by simply raising awareness people in general are more likely donate and a lot of people who upload the selfies are donating too. Sure, you’ll get the odd person who’ll just upload the picture and nothing else, but why assume all people are doing it in the name of vanity and selfishness? They’re quite clearly not, shown by the fact that the campaign has raised £1 million in just 24 hours. To wash your hands of a whole campaign because a minority have taken advantage of it in the name of vanity is arguably just as selfish and narrow-minded.
People who argue that we all know about cancer and that the campaign is therefore pointless have completely missed the point. Yes, we all know that cancer exists, but being the busy human beings that we are we aren’t all in the constant state of thinking “yep, I know cancer exists, I should probably donate to a charity to help out!” We need advertising appeals, charity events and viral campaigns in order to remind of us the problem and it’s these methods that create spikes in charity donations that keep research and charities alive. If Cancer Research stopped advertising and campaigning, do you really think it’s feasible that they’d survive simply on the basis that everyone has knowledge of cancer’s existence? Think again.
I’ve seen a lot of statuses and tweets from people complaining that others are just uploading pictures in order to receive compliments on how naturally pretty they are and that we already know about cancer and so it’s pointless to take part.
To me these seems like the most ridiculous things you could ever say – of course some people expect compliments, but by simply raising awareness people in general are more likely donate and a lot of people who upload the selfies are donating too. Sure, you’ll get the odd person who’ll just upload the picture and nothing else, but why assume all people are doing it in the name of vanity and selfishness? They’re quite clearly not, shown by the fact that the campaign has raised £1 million in just 24 hours. To wash your hands of a whole campaign because a minority have taken advantage of it in the name of vanity is arguably just as selfish and narrow-minded.
People who argue that we all know about cancer and that the campaign is therefore pointless have completely missed the point. Yes, we all know that cancer exists, but being the busy human beings that we are we aren’t all in the constant state of thinking “yep, I know cancer exists, I should probably donate to a charity to help out!” We need advertising appeals, charity events and viral campaigns in order to remind of us the problem and it’s these methods that create spikes in charity donations that keep research and charities alive. If Cancer Research stopped advertising and campaigning, do you really think it’s feasible that they’d survive simply on the basis that everyone has knowledge of cancer’s existence? Think again.
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