Activism 2.0: How 99 wine corks made it to prime time television

Apr 14, 2010 by     35 Comments    Posted under: Activism

Background

On March 14th, Portugal’s major opposition party (PSD – Partido Social Democrata or Social Democrat Party in English) approved a law in congress that prohibited party members from criticizing its leadership 60 days prior to any official election the party was involved in. As soon as the congress was finished the main contenders for the party’s election, taking place 2 weeks later, declared that this law didn’t make sense and needed to be changed. The fact remained that the law was approved and diminished the freedom of speech inside a democratic party.  This law was immediately coined by the press, and even party members, as the “Lei da Rolha” or “The Cork Law,” which refers to corking the mouths of the party members.

During the same congressional session the PSD party reversed an existing practice providing press accreditation to bloggers. Another member of the blog collective “31 da Sarrafada” and I went to the location, despite no longer having any formal authorization, and reported via twitter what was happening. After 10h of making contacts and some well-humored pressure, we finally got inside where the Congress was taking place with two smuggled accreditations (given to us by members of opposing candidates for the party’s elections). The fact was reported by two online newspapers due to the fact that we approached every member of the media to report this situation.  By the end of the congress, we had produced more tweets about the event than anyone else reporting from inside.

The Cork Gate

Last weekend the PSD party convened for another congress, this time to acclaim the new leader and to choose the new party direction. The “Cork Law” was not going to be discussed and the general feeling was that no one inside the party, or the new direction, wanted it to be a part of this Congress.

So I decided to take the cork, literally, to the PSD Congress. During the Easter holidays I got my nephews to paint 99 wine corks with the number 31 (top, bottom and side) and took them to the Congress. For those who know me you know how strongly I feel about the importance of freedom of speech in a society that more and more seems to be formatted by biased media. Freedom of speech is a corner stone of any democratic country and of any democratic organization, such as a political party. Thus, this law being approved was, to me, an aberration of sorts. For this congress bloggers received formal accreditation and we had the same working conditions as the journalists that were covering the Congress’s works.

On the first day Congress was taking place I started giving corks to the members of the press that were present on location as well as approaching some well known members of the party and giving them a cork while explaining my concerns. Some accepted it with a smile, some accepted it because they couldn’t refuse it, and some accepted it and immediately got the joke.  One of the new faces of the party’s direction even showed the cork to the TV crew that was interviewing him live on television some moments after.

By that time some online newspapers had already started to report this action.

When you mix a political event producing no relevant news with media hungry for something relevant you have a winning combination if you want to call attention to any given subject.

Saturday morning a TV anchor told me he wanted an interview regarding the corks for live television. By the end of the day I had been interviewed by every television and radio station, national news agency and newspaper covering the congress.

Prominent party members and congressional delegates had been interviewed and questioned regarding “The Cork Law” and political commentators were discussing the subject.

My objective was to bring the discussion to the PSD congress and that objective was more than fulfilled.

Methodology

There is no real secret behind this action but some things should be taken into consideration.

  1. Know your target audience: There is a difference between giving a cork to an anonymous party delegate or to one of its most influent members. Target those that matter and approach them.
  2. Define your subject: This particular action was about freedom of speech not about politics.  Focus on the main subject and make sure you get your message across in the clearest way possible.
  3. Be provocative (but polite): No one likes a bully. Don’t be intrusive, don’t interrupt people while they are talking to others; wait for the right moment and deliver your message.
  4. Gather media attention: The fact that the corks were first given to the members of the press was not by chance. The teaser for this action had been posted on Twitter and Facebook by uploading this photo on the day prior to the Congress.
  5. Use social media to spread the word:  For every cork that was given I would send out a tweet naming the person that I had given it to. I should’ve used a #hashtag and that is something that should be kept in mind: information has to be easy to find and #hashtags on twitter are the best way to manage that.

Below you can find one of the many television news clips, with subtitles, so you can understand what is being said.




Thanks to Franklin Ferrer for encoding the video(s)

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