Like many of you, we watched the 12-12-12 Sandy Relief concert last night. (Read more about the concert from yesterday’s post).
While it’s still too early to gauge the concert’s financial effect, here’s my early reaction:
- This was a once-in-a-lifetime assemblage of music and entertainment talent. The concert itself was GREAT.
- The marketing and execution of this concert was flawless — from the band set ups to the poignant stories to the celebrity bits about certain devastated areas and the accompanying video clips to the big companies stepping up as sponsors so that 100% of contributions goes directly to relief aid. Bravo.
- The social media sphere has cast a critical eye on the diversity in the musical lineup (see Forbes): “The evening, billed as the ’12/12/12 concert,’ placed special emphasis on the date, and in 2012, it’s difficult to imagine that a major, hours-long musical event was staged with a single female headliner, and with few people of color. It’s even more startling given the concert’s location and purpose. It doesn’t seem too much expect that the concert would have–and should have—reflected the diversity of New York City and of the people affected by the storm.”
- After making a telephone donation last night, my wife was asked if she wanted to speak to a celebrity and then waited on hold for a half hour (remember, they kept saying anyone could speak to celebrity). But, boy, was it worth the wait. When the celebrity finally answered, he asked my wife for her name, and then said: “Hi, I’m Adam Sandler.” This is the same guy who rocked the house with his special Sandy song, and whose movies we think are great. We was super nice and chatted for quite a while. So, here’s a shout out to Adam! (http://www.adamsandler.com/) 🙂
This is the YouTube video of Adam Sandler’s song from last night. Note: Not for those who are easily offended. [VERY STRONG LANGUAGE, definitely “R rated”]
I thought the concert was GREAT! Adam’s performance was terrific. Alicia Keys rocked the house and Bon Jovi was riveting. I thought it was a great show!
The images and videos of superstorm Sandy still take my breathe away.
Doing a charity concert during the season of goodwill and for the majority of the population, Christmastime … is genius. While Sandy is in the news less and less, the strife and rebuilding goes on. It’s important to remember that for many, this holiday season will be tinged with sadness and loss. Any light shined or hope given is a blessing.
Giving goods, time or money helps other people and makes the giver feel good too. Fortunately we have many talented musicians and actors from NY & NJ who care about their “homeland”. Their help, in their ways, is raising a fortune to rebuild areas that so many people have fond memories of. I cannot criticize the venue, selection of performers, words of any song, etc….because to criticize the gift from another … is just not right. Unless of course, they gave fruitcake.
I loved the concert!
p.s. that is awesome that Linda spoke to Adam Sandler!
I celebrate the cause of the concert and applaud the performers for sharing their music for free. However, I did not view much of it nor did I have a desire too. Although the marketing campaign has been reported to be exceptional it did very little to attract the attention of the diverse group of people that hurricane Sandy affected. I believe the line up featured no Hispanics, no Asians, one woman, and two African Americans. The area affected by Hurricane Sandy is probably the most diverse area in the country and the tremendous amount of money that was raised could have been even greater in my opinion. More diversity could have had a more inspirational impact for the devastated communities.
Agreed. That’s noted in the post. 🙂
Seeing the people helping each other from the bottom of their hearts and ignoring any prejudice makes me feel warm in the United States as a visitor. Last night I feel the United States is “united”!
When i listening” because we are New Yorkers” in the show, i was so excited and moved, i do not know why, but i think i love this city, i want to stay here.
It’s interesting that although none of the major networks aired 12-12-12, the potential audience was over 2 billion people. The Concert for Hurricane Relief following Katrina in 2005 aired on all the the major broadcast networks and only reached very small fraction of that (8.5 million according to Wikipedia). Goes to show the power of cable networks and online streaming for reaching a big audience in 2012.
Yes. It will be interested to see when the ratings are released. Still waiting for the donation number to be released.
I think this whole idea for the concert was great. It was different, it was beneficial, however like Zeke said (and you did also in the post) it wasn’t marketed as diversely as I would have hoped. I only knew of the concert really through this blog/class. I never heard much about it elsewhere. However despite that, I find it very cool that your wife was able to talk to Adam. No false marketing there!
I was also surprised by the lack of diversity in the concert, which despite this shortcoming went great. However I was surprised that the team that put this together didn’t account for the overall population that was struck by Sandy, which included a plethora of women and minorities. In relation to an organization seeking sponsors who match up well with their target audience, I thought that those involved in throwing this concert failed to provide enough diversity in the artists who performed to match up with the areas affected by Sandy as well as the massive worldwide audience that tuned in.
It is impressive that from the band set ups to the poignant stories to the celebrity bits about certain devastated areas and the accompanying video clips to the big companies stepping up as sponsors so that 100% of contributions goes directly to relief aid