The fun virus
2009-10-16 08:36
Life is a serious business. Recessions, wars, global warming - we all know these are grave issues that require sober contemplation. But what if we're wrong?
Early in October a website launched with a simple mission: to prove that you can get people to do the right thing by making it fun.
First they proved that you can get more people (66% more in fact) to take the stairs instead of the escalator, simply by turning the stairs into giant piano keys. Hard to imagine? See it here.
Then they showed that you can triple the amount of rubbish thrown into a bin by adding a sound effect that makes the bin sound hundreds of metres deep. If that sounds improbable, you can see it in action here.
The site, called The Fun Theory, is now offering a €2 500 prize for the best proof of the theory. It's open to literally anyone, so the whole world can (and hopefully will) get involved.
There's a catch though - it's an advertising campaign for Volkswagen. A brilliant, subtle, delightful campaign - but a campaign nonetheless.
But does that necessarily invalidate the message? The biggest flaw of many movements for good is they take themselves far too seriously. Most modern humans, besieged on all sides by heart-rending appeals and dire warnings, eventually become numb to them.
We all know we should campaign to help starving children. But when we see them on TV every week, most of us have to distance ourselves or we will go mad. We all know we should recycle, but it's a chore and we naturally hoard our precious leisure time.
Fun is the opposite of these instincts. Fun is about being surprised, delighted and challenged. It's about the sense of play that many of us leave behind (to our detriment) in childhood. Fun is about being fully engaged and in the moment - it's intrinsically rewarding.
In fact fun is the driving force behind some of the biggest sites on the internet. Everything from YouTube to Facebook to Twitter runs on the juice that this intrinsic reward provides.
Sure, Facebook is also about maintaining friendships and organising your social life, but we "do" the site because we find our friends interesting, entertaining, intriguing...sounds like fun doesn't it?
And there's another, deeper aspect to this idea and this campaign. They have made the message infectious - made it into a meme or "mind virus" to borrow Richard Dawkins’ famous neologism.
You "catch" the sense of fun from the videos - you want other people to experience it. How did I get the video? A friend sent it to me, it infected me, and now I am infecting you with it.
Yes, the fun theory has its limits. I'm not sure it will be at all useful in resolving the conflict in Palestine, or ending world hunger. But, as Malcolm Gladwell shows in his brilliant book, The Tipping Point, small changes can often shift (or "tip") an entire city, country or even planet.
Imagine a fun initiative cuts obesity in Europe by even five percent? That would save them billions in healthcare, which could used for development and aid. Idealistic? Maybe. But I'm in favour of anything that makes the world better.
Is there an ethical issue in participating in a giant global advert? Yes, in the end, VW just want to hock more cars. But much more good will come of this than many tedious corporate social investments accompanied by violins. And, hell, at least it'll be fun.
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