The Tipping Point

American Cancer Society is a very well-known nonprofit in America and every year the ACS holds an event called Relay For Life in counties all over the America to raise awareness about cancer and celebrate with the survivors of cancer through a survivor lap at the relay event. This year’s theme for Relay For Life of Baldwin County, Georgia is Celebrate a Memory in which we all will gladly celebrate another birthday, a memory or in honor of those who have survived or passed away from cancer. Each story is unique and touching to everyone who hears or reads it and gives inspiration to those to keep fighting and stay strong.

In reading "The Tipping Point" by Maxwell Gladwell, it sheds light onto the different ways that my PR Administration class can “tip” this Relay For Life Kickoff event to get optimal participation and donations from those in Baldwin County. Gladwell says that it takes only the smallest of changes to shatter an epidemic’s equilibrium to make it spread like wild fire. He also goes on to give three agents of change of “The Tipping Point”: The Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. As I read the book I tried thinking of ways of how I could identify the rules to the many aspects of the Relay For Life Kickoff event.

With the Law of the Few, it is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts to get the word out. My class is one of the few people working in order to get the ball rolling for this event. This makes us “connectors” because we as a group are linked to other people in the community who can help lead us to the right people for food and decoration donations. For instance, one student in our class knows a gentleman in the community who graciously supplied our event with food and decoration donations, which will help us a lot in budgeting for other important items we will need. For the Relay For Life Kickoff event we will have to be “salesmen” to businesses and people of Baldwin County to make sure that they know not only ACS will be benefited by their donation or time, but that they themselves can get a tax write off and their name displayed at the event as a donor. I think if we all could get in touch with someone in the community that we know, we could definitely get all of our food, decorations, and supplies for free leaving us to pay for nothing.

I think without a doubt that this year’s Relay For Life theme Celebrate a Memory will last in the hearts and minds of all who attend this event. It will have the Stickiness Factor to it, because it has a message that will last forever and has the personal touch that makes it feel sweet and genuine. Our event will be the best birthday party anyone has been to in a long time due the symbolism and impact it will leave. The way we will achieve the Stickiness Factor is celebrating with others those who have survived cancer and live to tell their triumphant story as well as give a reason to people to keep donating their money to research in hopes that one day there will be a cure. The symbolism behind ACS is very touching and personal, because it shows the dedication of those who have fought for twenty-six years and gave money to a worthy cause. This event will bring people close together and be a memorable birthday party.

When it comes to Power of Context Gladwell states that we are more than just sensitive to changes in context, we are sensitive to them and when we get in groups, we become pressured to into making irrational decisions. I think as a class and with the guidance of our professor, we will not be as prone to making irrational decisions, because we know what is at stake and who will be greatly affected by our decisions. We have the control to make a positive “tip” with our event to spread all over Baldwin County to increase donations and participation in the relay itself. When we did our pitches to the Relay For Life committee, we were able to share our ideas of a birthday party and come together as one group to plan one amazing, symbolic, touching event that will have a lasting impression on those who come after us and plan this event.

After the finishing the book, I have realized that I am sort of a maven. Growing up and even now I will say random things or thoughts about a subject, object, word, etc.., because I have learned something important about it previously in life. For example, tonight I was at an event for my sorority and the name of the band was Harlow, it made automatically think of Nichole Richie’s daughter being named Harlow. Even if the information I spit out at someone is irrelevant and nonsense…at least it is something I have learned and will tell people. I guess I am just a random person.

These rules apply to social media in a big way, because if something happens with a celebrity like a divorce, marriage, pregnancy or something big happening within the world, it will spread to Facebook and Twitter in no time. People use social media to get news and gossip on what is happening around them. We become “connectors” through social media and with the click of the mouse we are lead to several different people’s Facebook pages or tweets just to follow a developing story. It only takes one news story to light up the internet with bloggers, tweets, and statuses to start an epidemic.