Earlier this year, ABC’s “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said the Holocaust was “not about race” and was simply a conflict between “two white groups of people”.
“The View” has a large audience, averaging nearly two million viewers per broadcast, and so Goldberg’s on-air comments immediately sparked intense backlash from not just the Jewish community, but peoples around the world.
The Holocaust was “not about race” and was simply a conflict between “two white groups of people”
Goldberg issued a public apology and was placed on a two-week suspension following the backlash.
Halcyon believes networks like ABC should be held responsible for ensuring their hosts are properly informed on historical events before going on-air, so that harmful historical inaccuracy like Goldberg’s view of the Holocaust isn’t aired in the future.
Halcyon launched a campaign that networks be obliged to adequately brief their on-air personalities on historical events before letting them speak on those events.
Sign the petition and let your voice be heard.
The Campaign
For this campaign, Halcyon created a petition for social media users to sign if they agree that on-air personalities should be adequately briefed before speaking on historical events.
The strategy:
- Landing page: Halcyon created a landing page asking users to sign a petition if they agree on-air personalities should be adequately briefed about the topics they intend to speak about.
- Social media campaign: a social media campaign was initiated to drive users to the landing page and sign the petition if they agreed with Halcyon’s initiative.
The Results
56% of users who accessed the landing page decided to sign the petition.
Location:
- The greatest concentration of petition signups came from Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Philadelphia
- Washington, D.C. brought in the majority of signups, with New York a close second
- California, despite being the most populous state in America, didn’t even rank within the top 10 locations
- Texas had 2 cities within the top 10 locations, with Dallas 4th and Houston 8th
Demographics:
The petition also looked at demographics such as gender and age to see who was engaging with the petition the most.
- 60.6% of petition signups were female while 39.4 were male
Women aged 18-49 make up the majority of the audience for “The View”.
- 27.7% of signups were from people older than 65
- 27.2% of signups were from ages 55-64
- 21.7% of signups were from ages 45-54
- 12.6% of signups were from ages 35-44
- 6.5% of signups were from ages 25-34
- 4.3% of signups were from ages 18-24
- 60.6% of petition signups were female while 39.4 were male
Women aged 18-49 make up the majority of the audience for “The View”.
- 27.7% of signups were from people older than 65
- 27.2% of signups were from ages 55-64
- 21.7% of signups were from ages 45-54
- 12.6% of signups were from ages 35-44
- 6.5% of signups were from ages 25-34
- 4.3% of signups were from ages 18-24
The lowest cost of getting someone to the landing page was only $0.93, with an average cost of $1.16.