Media
August 2020
Commentary: Lessons from the Early Days of "Covid-Branding"
Among many things, corona virus disrupted fieldwork at Commodifying Compassion, and so researchers Lisa Richey and Maha Rafi Atal turned their attention to analysing trends in early Covid Branding. The research was picked up at Forbes magazine and their insights were shared. The core message? That not every time is the right time for real-time marketing.
The full article in Forbes magazine can be read here and the research can be read in full here.
October 2019
Commentary: Imagining Africa as the Market for Profiting from Whiteness
Lisa Richey wrote a commentary for the academic blog The Disorder of Things. The piece was part of a symposium on Clive Gabay’s Imagining Africa: Whiteness and the Western Gaze (2018) where the researchers Lisa Tilley, Toussaint Nothias and Gabay, the author himself, also contributed. In her commentary, Lisa Richey engages with the book's themes of Whiteness, Afropolitanism and international relations of Africa.
The commentary and the rest of the symposium can be read here.
September 2019
Twitter thread: Crowdfunding or taxes?
In a Twitter thread, Commodifying Compassion engaged with a recent column in the Wall Street Journal, which proposed an elaborate system for crowdfunding 'good' causes such as health care. The column inspired a series of humorous
comments from Twitter users pointing out the similarity between this 'innovative idea' and the well-known concept of taxes. However, Italy has for years had a unique model for financing non-profits, religious organizations and political parties through taxes, combining the regular tax system with elements of crowdfunding. The researchers of Commodifying Compassion are currently working on a paper about these programs and the implications they have for how private companies interact with humanitarian causes in Italy compared to other places.
Click here to see the whole Twitter thread and learn more about Italy's 8 per mille, 5 per mille and 2 per mille programs.
July 2019
Blog post: Can ‘humanitarian humour’ and satire improve the images that volunteer-tourists upload on social media?
In a recent post on The Humanitarian News Research Network website, Carolina Are presents main points from Lisa Richey's new research article co-authored by Kaylan C. Schwarz: Humanitarian humor, digilantism, and the dilemmas of representing volunteer tourism on social media (2019). The post features visuals from the online campaigns described in the research article such as "Humanitarians of Tinder" and "Barbie Saviour". The blog post can be read here.
May 2019
Interview: Can humanitarian causes be both marketable and ethical?
An interview with Lisa Richey was published on the AidEx blog AidExVoices. In the blog post, Lisa Richey shared her perspectives on the issue of Commodifying Compassion, and reflected on the question of how we as consumers and citizens can think critically about the promises of Brand Aid and "win-for-all" products or services.
April 2019
Blog Post: The Rise of Caring Capitalism in the Humanitarian Space
Alexandra Budabin wrote a blog post, which summarizes the insights and discussions from the two panels organized by the CoCo project at the 2019 International Studies Association Annual Convention. The blog post was published on the Human Rights blog by University of Dayton.
Read the blog post here.
March 2019
Interview: Comic Relief and the power of celebrity
In a blog post on the official blog of AidEx, AidExVoices, Lisa Richey commented on the use of celebrities and consumer goods in fundraising events such as Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day. For more comments on this topic, see also this article in Huffington Post.