Faces of the Drug War » Faces Campaign

Portugal decriminalized all drug use in 2001 and the result has been a reduction in health and social problems...

– Glenn Greenwald, 2001 "Drug Decriminalization in Portugal", the Cato Institute

Concerts + Dialogue + Media Marketing = Engagement The Concerts A series of 8 concerts in Canada, the US and Europe will feature major artists who support ending the war on drugs.  During the concerts there will be intermittent videos and images that show the real victims of the war on drugs, along with brief appearances by celebrities, politicians, policy reformers and representatives of victims groups talking about why they support the end of the Drug War.  A communications plan for each event will focus on local media and provide Drug War content, interviews with celebrities, policy reformers, victims groups and other supporters.  Venues will be for audiences of 20,000 and up. International artists as well as local and national artists will be featured in each location. Targeted cities are: Vancouver Toronto New York Los Angeles London Berlin Munich Washington D.C. Public Dialogue Events Public forums will take place during the two weeks prior to each concert. Events in each city will include: public meetings with key note speakers who will give information about the War on Drugs, the real consequences, the victims. Speakers will include members of the judiciary, the police, victims groups, academics and researchers, addictions and mental health experts, politicians and celebrities facilitated meetings where the focus is on discussing policy change and mapping a way forward media will be invited to be present at all events.  News releases, info series, and other forms of media engagement would be facilitated social media marketing will be used to promote all events and to be a hub where information is available and on- line discussion can take place in each forum, policy makers, politicians and government agencies will be invited to participate in on- line engagement and numbers of people attending forums and concerts will be measured and the results will be made public, along with recommendations that come out of the meetings. Social Media Marketing Support An interactive social media campaign will support all aspects of the project and will gather interest and participation leading up to the events. This will be a hub that will provide information, link to other related sites and initiate dialogue. The SMM campaign will include an interactive web site designed and maintained by social media marketing consultants experienced in the area of social change engaging online community via blogs, Facebook & MySpace, YouTube channel,Twitter, Flickr promoting celebrity and partner actions providing and linking to relevant information about the issues inspiring support and concert attendance fundraising online active throughout campaign in linking to new members and partners Our aim is to engage millions of people in order to demonstrate to policy leaders that there is a public desire for change.  Social media campaigns are currently able to achieve these types of results with strategic use of available networking sites and groups.  This is a unique concept and will harness the power of social media along with the ability of the arts community to attract large numbers of people to an issue.

via facesofthedrugwar.com