Saturday, December 07, 2019

Football Counter-Programming 2019: Week 16


Your alma mater may or may not have triumphed in last weekend's Rivalry Game standoff. And I don't know and I don't care and neither should you . . . because we're NOT talking about football here at FC-P and I'm almost running out of time to convince you of that fact.

So . . . I don't know if you have any rooting interest in this weekend's Conference Championship games, but I'm assuming you do and I'm going to fight against it anyway.

How you might say?

Well . . . have you heard of the Project 4 Awesome?

Every year, (or at least every year since . . . maybe 2009 or 2010?) Hank and John Green have taken a weekend at the end of the year to promote charity on YouTube. In the early days, before they were famous, they used YouTube's existing algorithm and encouraged their video followers to make and upload many charity-based videos . . . and then to watch and like those same videos. By doing so, the (then) front page load screen of YouTube was thus filled with promoted and up-liked videos with charity themes.

Since then, YouTube has changed its algorithm many different times. But the Vlogbrothers have gained their own fame and influence and they have shifted accordingly. In more recent years, the P4A has been held on its own dedicated URL page. It still consists of individually crowd-sourced charity videos on all many of subjects, made by fans and by those wishing to promote charitable works. But the fund-raising arm of P4A has gotten even bigger. There are corporate sponsors and matching funds. And it is all centered around Hank and John's 48 hour-plus continuous LiveStream in Indianapolis and Missoula. And when they need to take a break, other YouTubers and friends take up the feed and keep things moving. They watch videos and get the viewers to watch and like and promote the videos as well. And there are lots of unscripted LiveStream shenanigans to keep people tuned in.

You can check out the Stream here:



I encourage you to visit the P4A Web site and investigate the quirky perks that they offer. By purchasing these perks, they raise money that is given directly to their main two charitable organizations. And then the other half of the money that is raised is split evenly between the top ten individual charity videos uploaded by fans that get the most likes. 

In the decade or more that the Green's have led this effort, they have raised over $10 million for charities. And they keep coming back for more each year. 

Spend some time on the LiveStream. Donate some money if you can. I promise that the time spent will be more valuable to so many more people that whatever time you take today to watch football.

Happy weekend to all!