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The web is what you make of it.
That's the message of the Google Chrome campaign. It's not inherently a public health message, not exactly a suicide prevention message. But, maybe, if we're willing to look a little more closely, it is.
Coming just a few weeks after the release of It Gets Better the book, the newest Google Chrome commercial features the It Gets Better project. Launched by Dan Savage, the project built a movement to give hope to LGBT teens following several high-profile suicide deaths.
Like any good commercial, its impact is best felt by watching it. It's not perfect - there's some sensationalizing of LGBT teen suicide. But, it captures the feeling at the heart of the It Gets Better movement, a feeling that mobilized millions of people around LGBT suicide prevention.
What the Google Chrome/It Gets Better commercial does extremely well is tap into emotion, the human side of this story. The web, which is really what the commercial is about, isn't human. But, the people who use the web are. The commercial tells that story. In a minute and a half.
Traditional suicide prevention can learn a lot from the folks at It Gets Better and Google Chrome. Right now, a YouTube video changes lives. What can you make of the web? What ways can you use the web to build your movement? As one person said in an It Gets Better campaign YouTube video, "There is art to be made, and there are songs to be sung." Can we be artists, singers in the movement to build hope?
Copyright 2011 Elana Premack Sandler, All Rights Reserved
