Passionate South African initiates a clean up plan with the 5fm team after balloon release video goes viral and community raises concerns.
5fm recently posted a video on Facebook showing how they released a massive amount of red balloons during a concert but the response was not what they expected. Apparently South Africans care more about the environment than video views.
SEE ALSO: South Africans respond to 5fm balloon release video
One South African, Blake Dyason, decided to do more than just rant on social media. The passionate Capetonian took it upon himself to contact the management at 5fm and in doing so has assisted in a new initiative being born to raise environmental awareness as well as a mass clean up.
“I came across this video on social media of hundreds of red balloons being released and my heart broke. I became angry, along with hundreds of others who raised their opinions on social media. I knew this was an opportunity to create a tipping point, educating South African’s about our impact on our environment and our responsibility to protect it.”
Dyason took to social media to find someone at 5FM to discuss this with, in order to turn the entire sitaution into something more positive. It took a few days before Justine, the station manager got back to him, but she did.
“Justine acknowledged that 5FM had made a mistake and was excited to discuss ideas around running campaigns to educate South Africans about caring for our environment.”
“I sent her a list of organizations I believe are doing great work in this space that included Two Oceans Aquarium “Rethink the Bag”, CleanC and Love our trails.”
All these organizations host regular cleanups or activations giving communities the opportunity to be part of the movement.
5FM have now agreed to run a campaign and apparently have been in contact with the organizations to start rolling out a campaign.
“I truly believe if 5FM come to the party and everyone involved gives a 100% to this campaign, it could be the tipping point. We could educate and encourage South African’s to care for our environment and give future generations the opportunity to live in a clean and beautiful country.”
“I was reminded that we have to stop pointing fingers and start asking what have I done or what can I do to make a difference. I am just a normal South African that cares for our environment and chose to find opportunity in a place of anger and fault.”
GoodThingsGuy will update as soon as the campaign goes live.
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