By IANS,
London : Prince Charles seems to be looking to borrow a little bit of Obama magic. To boost his campaign to save rainforests, he has hired the Internet consultancy firm that created the web campaign for the US president.
Prince Charles’ latest initiative to preserve the rainforests aims to create pressure for action ahead of July’s G8 summit in Italy and December’s UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
And Blue State Digital, which was behind the hugely popular web component of Obama’s presidential campaign, is providing knowhow and software to maximise the impact of the rainforest campaign and mobilise supporters, the web edition of the Time newsmagazine reported this week.
It is a surprising move from the Prince of Wales who doesn’t write e-mails or use a BlackBerry or iPhone. He, in fact, still uses a fountain pen to write letters and instructions of such calligraphic idiosyncrasy that they are collectively known in the royal household as “black spider memos”, the report said.
Yet, the heir to Britain’s throne is aware of the power of technology.
The campaign he launched Tuesday is based on a 90-second film that he hopes will go “viral”, and relies on state-of-the-art software and Internet strategy honed during Barack Obama’s election campaign.
Blue State Digital managing partner Thomas Gensemer said the key is to make everything so user-friendly that the message, not the medium, gets attention.
“If you make the message accessible to people, whether you’re Barack Obama, the Prince of Wales or an organiser on the street you can get people to take collective action,” he was quoted as saying.
“Nothing we did for President Obama was magic,” Gensemer added. “It was about making the barrier low for individuals to be part of the effort.”