CNN Donating for Surveys
I went to the CNN site today and noticed an ad on the right side asking me to take a survey about electronics. (It’s actually just about Nikon, especially their advertisements on CNN.) I like surveys, so I clicked it and saw that it says they’ll donate €2 if you’re from Europe or $2 if you’re not to the organization of your choice, out of the four options listed, if you complete it. After doing that, it took me back to the CNN site and I saw an ad for a different survey, about travel, so I did that too. I have to say that you really shouldn’t believe them when they say it’ll be short, because if you intend to do it properly it’ll take quite some time to complete. But at least there are five organizations to choose from at the end of it, since the part about the donation still applies.
Personally, I find it unlikely to be true, that donation made for every single survey taker. The expenses would be huge, considering the amount of visitors a site like CNN has, especially for the Nikon one, since I think that’s short enough for anyone to take. And the other one may be long and complex enough to make many potential takers give up at some point, but that doesn’t mean they won’t complete it; they could just give up on providing serious answers and just click through to the end.
But that’s less important. What I find interesting is the concept, attempting to motivate people to do something by donating money to a cause they support instead of promising them a chance to win something for themselves. It’d be nice if it’d work, it’d mean a fair number of people do care more for a cause than for themselves, at least when it comes to little efforts. Which is exactly why I say it matters less whether it’s true or not…
It’d be good news if this kind of incentive would have the desired effect, even if that would take away most of its “activist” value and leave only the marketing. It’d also be great if they’d keep their promise about the donations. But right now it seems good enough that such a large corporation is looking in that direction, and perhaps even trying to encourage people to get more involved by doing so.
Something like this doesn’t involve trying to educate people or attempting to make those who don’t care start caring. If true, it just provides an easy way to help a little bit. What’s more important, it provides a way to help unwittingly. The world truly needs that, considering how many ways there are to harm unwittingly…
