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How Marketing Destroyed The Soul of the Poppy Appeal Online
A Lament
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Showing Support
I sign up around 20th October to get me Poppy stuck on me @markinreading Twitter ID picture.
I assumed that it was from The Royal British Legion.
Turns out that it isn’t.
It’s from a bloke called JoshuaKAL, but who cares. markinreading Before markinreading After
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Five Tweets That Started It
And there I was, twittering away on 29th October 2009 when @PoppySupport starts promoting #poppytyranny.
Seems, unpleasant to me, and not like The Royal British Legion at all.
Turns out, that it isn’t.
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Then We All Got Confused
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More Confusion The Day AfterSo I’m getting more confused...
@PoppySupport is massive and links to www.poppy.org.uk/support-us/new-ways-to-support
@LondonPoppy is barely active and shows no web page in its profile
@PoppyLegion links to www.legionlive.org.uk in its profile
@ poppy_man is least-used and links to www.poppy.org.uk
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Different Poppies - More Confusing
And so many types of Poppy.
There’s even two types of Twibbon Poppy.
I’m well fearful now.
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I Fear The Worst!
With all this fundraising and all these identities, I’m thinking......this is a:
FIELD DAY FOR HOAXERS
FIELD DAY FOR SPAMMERS
And I’m, like, whoa!
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British Legion Home
I seek the definitive source – go to The Royal British Legion website!
www.britishlegion.org.uk
No problem.
But no reference to Twitter there.
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www.poppy.org.uk/support-us/new-ways-to-support
Doesn’t list @PoppySupport
Doesn’t list @poppy_man
But the mobile number used by @PoppySupport checks out – so at least there is no rip-off going on.
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@PoppySupport Is Devious
Everyone on Twitter should be open about who they are.
Especially the Royal British Legion.
@PoppySupport is not open.
Links to British Legion, yes. But not identifying who they are.
Yet they’ve achieved more online support than the Royal British legion did.
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The Charity Commission
Charity number confirmed.
Name of organisation confirmed.
This becomes important later.
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Search for PoppySupport
Search for “PoppySupport”
Nothing.
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Search For PoppyMan
Search for “PoppyMan”
Nothing.
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Search for PoppyLegion
Search for “PoppyLegion”
Nothing.
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Search For Poppy_Man
Search for “Poppy_Man”
Nothing.
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Poppy.org Front Page
On www.poppy.org I find the heart and soul of the Poppy Appeal.
This is what it’s all about.
But no mention of Twitter.
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Images from britishlegion.org.uk
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The voice of British Legion’s Web Agency
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PoppyLegion Frontpage
So I visit PoppyLegion’s page on Twitter.
90 tweets – quite active.163 followers – not as significant as PoppySupport.
A bit trendy and cutesy.
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Poppy_Man
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Poppy Legion Introduces Herself
Poppy’s well cool, innit.
She’s got “hot new content”.
Cool signature.
Gr8 tweets n’ all.
Happenin’ chick.
I is well impressed coz she’s like me, aw’rite?
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But She’s A Cartoon
But she’s a sham.
She’s not really blogging – the PR people at British Legion do that.
She’s not posting tweets.
On Remembrance Sunday, I’ll be remembering real people, not cartoon characters.
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What is iChild???
This “iChild” thing leaps out.
What is it.
The iChild site lets my kids make Bravery Medals out of paper.
Nice.
So I click on the link to iChild ...
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iChild – An Insurance Product!!!
This “iChild” thing turns out to be “operated by iChild, a division of family & Education Marketing Ltd” and “sponsored by Childsure”
Childsure is an insurance product for kids health underwritten by Aviva and offered by Sure Insurance Services ltd
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The Real Remembrance Day Voice
“The weren’t lying or patronising”Simon Brown, injured soldier speaking on the 2009 Poppy appeal launch video
The sincere and honest reason why we are here:
“For Their Sake”
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“Those lovely
people at iChild”
The False Remembrance Day Voice
I hear commercialism from Poppy Legion.
We need to sell insurance for private healthcare
She says “Those lovely people at iChild”.
This is sick.
A character which was a false construct, with a false blog, a false story and a commercial motive.
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Is It Just Me?
And on iChild’s site:
Is making your own “bravery medal” or “making a poppy” the same as making bonfire night decorations or halloween bunting?
Is it?
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Flickr – over 2,000 members and 12,500 photographs
YouTube – 26 videos, total views 5,400, most viewed video 2,382
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Facebook – no action from Poppy yet
Other pages:British Armed Forces 49,139 fans
Action for Armed Forces – 961 fans
Armed Forces Day – 183,783 fans
Maximum Respect for the British Armed Forces – 562,931 fans
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Bebo – 1 profile view0 comments0 friends
Known as:Poppy Legion <PoppyL8573>
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The Poppy Appeal – Contrasting Feelings
www.legionlive.org.uk/blogwww.poppy.org.uk
The one on the left is real. It moves me. The one on the right is about raising money.
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Embarassing Tweets From Poppy Legion
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The PR Around Poppy Is Important