I just finished reading a very interesting article about DDB New York’s latest ad campaign; they have taken tweets with the #FirstWorldProblems hashtag and filmed Haitians reading the “problems”.
As a marketing student and a missionary I have 2 things to say about this:
1. As a marketing student — I love the idea of taking online content to create offline content. I have seen many occasions where offline marketing strategies have been transferred to the online space in the form of television ads going on a youtube channel, or a print ad being used for online advertising purposes as well. And, of course, even more occasions where online content is used to create more online content like blogs. But I am trying hard to think of another campaign that brings the online offline; I am sure they exist but none that easily come to mind.
2. As a missionary — it was only recently that I was having a conversation about what I thought of the “First World Problems” phrase. DDB and the ad specifically puts the phrase in a very negative light, pointing out that these ‘problems’ really aren’t problems at all and everyone using the phrase are spoilt whiners. I disagree though and really like the phrase when it is used for the right purposes.
After 3 trips to a rural village in Uganda, I see this hashtag being used as a way for people to acknowledge that the ‘problem’ they are facing is nothing compared to the problems around the world. If someone else makes a trivial complaint, instead of the guilt-tripping, mood-killing, conversation-stopper “think of the children in Africa” (now rarely used for those reasons), people are responding with “first world problems” as a more acceptable way of communicating ‘stop whining because you have it great compared to some’ and consciously thinking about the two very different worlds.
Debates over twitter hashtags #firstworldproblems