Author Kicks Off National Social Media Campaign To Support Black Artists
Chicago, IL - Author and advertising executive, Tom Burrell launches the "Positive Push" Experiment, a national campaign utilizing the viral power of social media to support positive black music artists and videos in honor of Black Music Month. The impetus for this innovative campaign to combat the negative imagery plaguing the African American community was Burrell's recently released debut title, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority. In his book, Burrell "calls for a cadre of enlightened thinkers to use New Media to change how blacks are projected in the media. Instead of just talking the talk, we will kick things off with a relatively easy way to demonstrate our ability to bring about change." Utilizing the powerful social media networks of Twitter and Facebook, consumers are encouraged to Tweet and update their Facebook status that promotes positive artists and videos. The "Positive Push" campaign believes that misogynistic, violent or irresponsible lyrics and images aren't the only way to sell black music. Understanding the dynamic of promoting positive imagery to change the misguided "brainwashing" that has occurred over the years "Positive Push" will choose videos, representative of the core message, that consumers can view at www.stopthebrainwash.com. The first video selected for the campaign is the new single, "Tightrope" by singer Janelle Monáe. "The video not only serves as an homage to artists like Jackie Wilson, The Temptations, James Brown and Michael Jackson," said Burrell, "Monáe offers a video that's also evocative, hip and entertaining without using offensive or lewd imagery." If consumers like the videos message, they are asked to purchase the single on I-Tunes, and then use their social media networks to invite at least five friends to sample the video, buy the song and repeat the exercise by asking five more friends to join in. "We hope and believe that success of the "Positive Push" campaign will bring about game-changing results," Burrell stated. "Imagine if 200,000 people bought the song in a single day. All of sudden, the prism shifts and consumers are using their economic clout to bring about change."
About Tom Burrell
Marketing communications pioneer and Advertising Hall of Fame inductee Tom Burrell is credited with revolutionizing the image of African Americans in television and changing the face of American advertising. During his tenure as a top advertising executive, he coined the now-famous phrase, "Black people are not dark-skinned white people." His award-winning work promoted positive and realistic images of blacks and acknowledged the purchasing power of the African American community. In 2007 Burrell founded the Resolution Project, theresolutionproject.us, a nonprofit organization that promotes intra-racial dialogue and community-based new media "stop the brainwash" campaigns. "Our task is to use propaganda to eradicate negative images and replace them with a bombardment of positive words and images." He lives in Chicago's South Loop area. BRAINWASHED: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority is his first book.
