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If you’re interested in a movie, a television show, a band or a brand, chances are the website is up and ready before you’ve even heard of the project. That wasn’t the case 10 years ago, but a website is now hand in hand with any other type of marketing and promotion that would be done to launch a product.
However, a website doesn’t always have to be straightforward in the sense of introducing something new - it can also be about a movement. In the past few years, we’ve seen a rise in advocacy websites, whose job it is to influence you.
Like all good websites, an advocacy site needs to clearly outline their mission statement in a way that is easy to understand. The site should have a ‘call to action,’ where the goals are communicated, and of course, engage their intended audience with a clear design and ease of use. The bottom line is, the viewer should leave the website knowing what this group does and how they can help.
In this political climate, humor has become a tool for advocacy groups to get their message across. Section 101 works with musicFIRST, who tirelessly promote the idea that every music artist should get paid fairly when their music is played on the radio or on a streaming website. Unbelievably, some lobbyists disagree with this point of view. One of the ways musicFIRST chose to get attention to this cause was to work with us on creating a parody website at https://miccoalition.org. This website poked fun at the real MIC (music.innovation.consumerism) Coalition, whose main goal is to make sure artists do not get paid fairly when their works are performed/played. MIC claims to want to “create a more vibrant and open marketplace” for music, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In order to spotlight what they were doing in a meaningful way, musicFIRST tasked us with creating this parody website. We were excited to explore this type of work, and once we came up with calling MIC “Moneymaker Ignoring Creators,” we were on a roll! We designed the website exactly the same as the original, and used many of their buzzwords so that visually, the sites are interchangeable. This parody drew attention from Billboard, Politico, Associations Now magazine and many websites who commented on how unique it was to use parody in the halls of Congress to highlight a point.
Section 101 is thrilled to be working with some advocacy groups and broadening our reach in the field. It’s an exciting time of change and some upheaval on the Hill, and being a part of trying to make a difference has been an incredible experience for us.
