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The power of instant democracySeptember 22, 2009 | By Mark CameronA famously controversial American TV personality recently discovered the hard waythat more power now rests in the hands of average people than at any other time inhistory.Glenn Beck is known for being a very pro-Republican commentator on the FoxNetwork. The effective use of social networks has held him accountable for hiswords and actions in a way not possible until the last couple of years. This hasimplications, both negative and positive, for all brands and the people who marketthem.In the red corner we have…Beck does not try and hide the fact he is no fan of President Obama. This is fineof course - everyone is entitled to an opinion. The problem is that many peopleconsider his tactics to be less than honourable. He has been accused of spreadinglies and hatred on many occasions. He is a favourite target of Jon Stewart’s DailyShow. And sites claiming to expose Beck’s lies have popped up all over theinternet.Things came to head when Beck said: “This president has exposed himself as a guyover and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people … thisguy is, I believe, a racist.”Within minutes of him uttering these words, videos of the segment had beendistributed over the internet through social networks. Comments began springing upeverywhere and it quickly became one of the most viewed video segments - for a dayor two. And that may have been as far as it went if it weren’t for a group calledThe Color of Change.This group came into existence to inform Black American’s, via the internet, ofchanges in the political landscape and help get their voices heard. The Color ofChange had the idea to set up a special Glenn Beck page, not to expose his lies,but to expose the advertisers who supported his show. They posted a video of someof Beck’s most outrageous segments and overlaid the advertisers who weresponsoring the show and asked people to use an online form to express their angerto the advertisers.Some of Fox’s biggest advertisers soon dropped Beck from their advertisingschedule. One even went as far as to stop advertising on the network altogether.Social networks were buzzing every time another advertiser decided to drop Beck.The people had spoken and it was influencing the bottom line of a majorinternational company. Instant democracy in action.What can be learntGlenn Beck has already made a tearful apology… of sorts. He has always been hugelypopular with his audience so it is likely he will bounce back from this after afew weeks of carefully constructed PR. But this example does highlight some veryinteresting questions.Should brands pay attention to online campaigns like the one against Beck?The Beck campaign is really just one example of a much wider trend that grantsviewers of web content the right to be heard.
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