You may have noticed a somewhat tense political divide lately. And you’re not alone.
Chapter, a member of The Creative Alliance, “a group of leading creative companies and individuals who believe in giving the same firepower to our nation’s challenges as we do to some of the world’s biggest brands,” decided to launch a campaign addressing the issue.
Based on the assumption that “There’s more that unites us than divides us,” the “Undivided” campaign attempts to bridge such divisions that prevent dialogue and break people free from echo chambers to arrive at more productive conversations. The largely social effort calls on viewers to take a pledge to “promote the common ground” and “seek a productive dialogue” to “move our country forward together.”
The campaign launched on September 15 on Comedy Central and with social influencers. Social media is where the effort ultimately will have an impact as it hopes to inspire those on social media outlets to break free of their “social filter outlets” and have conversations with those who have different viewpoints. There’s a certain ambiguity to the effort that both avoids pigeonholing the message but also may prove to limit its effectiveness.
“It feels that our nation has never been more divided, but when you look at the beliefs of our nation today, there is so much common ground. The Creative Alliance was created to solve these types of challenges and strengthen the fabric of our country through the power of advertising,” said Mekanism CEO and The Creative Alliance co-founder Jason Harris. “The path to a more united nation begins with simple conversations, and Chapter created a compelling campaign to remind all of us that we have the ability and even the responsibility to make this change happen.”
“As media sources become increasingly polarized and we spend more time in the echo chambers of social media, it’s easy to lose sight that there is a remarkable level of agreement across the nation over the fundamentals of key policy debates,” added Chapter co-founder Gareth Kay. “Undivided’s goal is to help us share these areas of common ground to start a more productive conversation that moves the country forward.”
Credits:
Chapter
Co-Founders: Gareth Kay and Neil Robinson
Strategy: Michael Whitten
Design: Jeff Limon
Writing: Greg Halbreich, Jacob Baas
Illustration: Jing Wei, Alex Citrin, Rinee Shah, Ryan Peltier
Animation: Salih Abdul-Karim, Image Factory DC
Music: Future Perfect
Site development: ModOp
Co-CEOs: Miles Dinsmoor
Project Manager: Jordan Leano
Lead Developer: Alden Brown
Developer: Zachary Richards
Quality Assurance: Claudia Gonzalez
CTO: Roy Martin