The Same Font (a font for change)

John and Yoko's "Peace Campaign", launched in 1969, is the most ingenious use of mass media ever seen to influence change in the world. This assertion remained true until this past October 13 of 2006, when the "Red Campaign" to fight the global epidemic of AIDS was launched, which matches and surpasses the previous one in intelligence. In fact, both events should be seen as interconnected, one being the precursor of the other. It is truly uplifting to see how Bono and his peers have taken into a whole new level, something that John and Yoko started 37 years ago, not copying it, but re-interpreting it and re-adapting it in a truly visionary manner, which is the reward of many years of work. 

A remarkable trait that both campaigns have in common is the fact that both use the inertia of forces already in action, to benefit aspects of humanity that are being neglected by those same forces. Professor Louis Kaplan writes in his article, "War is Over! If You Want It, John and Yoko's Media"(1): "Rather than reject newspapers and TV as "exclusively instruments of corporate domination," John and Yoko sought "to work within the mass media, to use them, briefly and sporadically, against the system in which they functioned"". And Bono, commenting on the Red Campaign, said the following: "It's judo. It's taking the motion going forward of the American consumer and using it to defend people who don't have the power on their own."

Also, both campaigns meet in the way in which they were are criticized, particularly the artists heading them - John and Yoko in their time, and currently Bono- which have been accused by skeptics of using the media spotlight to advance their own selfish endeavors to make a profit. Gladly, the true audience, which nowadays happens to be the majority, recognizes the cynical nature of those accusations, and to the contrary, wishes to the artists in charge - in this case Bono - that he accumulate the most wealth possible, for they know that it will be put to good use, and this is encouraging for it signals maturity. A maturity that hopefully will lead us one day into seeing real change in our world. This is a process in motion, a process that started when Chuck Berry played the first Rock n' Roll chord in front of a bunch of white chicks, and that will conclude when all humans on earth have a belly full of food and the word bullet will be eradicated from our dictionaries.

As a sider note to all of you analytical-popculture-freaks, like me, haven't you all noticed that both campaigns used the same font?