Aministy international selling them selves

Velvet Vocals

Don't know if I'm posting this in the right place, so mod's please feel free to move it.
I've started to become more and more annoyed with the way Amnesty international are selling them selves at the moment. There is currently a radio add running that says that U2 wants you to join, they say it on all their album covers and if you want tickets to see U2 then join now and you'll be entered into a draw for tickets.
I'm seriously considering cancelling my membership because of this (and a few other reasons!)
Surely this is exploitive, joining amnesty international should be something that one thinks about seriously and does so with full understanding of exactly what kind of organisation they are. Joining for U2 tickets..... COME ON!!!!
Amnesty is not like signing up for a charity... it's saying that you believe certain things and people who might join up for cosmetic reasons might not know what they are signing up to.
I'm really staring to loose respect for Amenity and this is just adding fuel to the fire!

meditraitor

I reckon anybody who joins amnesty should be locked up and the keys thrown away........

Velvet Vocals

Really, why?? Not that I disagee intirely, I just really want to know why you think that. I'm sick of eveyone being "yea man, Aministy are cool" and you ask them why and they haven't a clue

meditraitor

Who ever said amnesty were cool? the popular opinion of amnesty is that it is full of middle class lazy twats running around trying to avaoid getting a real job.... we know

Velvet Vocals

I'm obviously mixing in the wrong circles... well isn't this refreshing

Orion

meditraitor wrote:

Who ever said amnesty were cool? the popular opinion of amnesty is that it is full of middle class lazy twats running around trying to avaoid getting a real job.... we know

Your opinion != popular opinion. Are you a professional troll? May I suggest that if you have nothing to contribute to the topic then please contribute nothing.

Amnesty is made up of people from all walks of life - the common factor is that we all have a interest in human rights. I partially agree with Saint Something. I also got a phone call from them to inform me of the membership drive to get me to recruit more members. While I understand the need for increasing membership I'm not convinced that this is the way to go about it. It's not enough to make me leave but I share your concerns about people joining who don't really know what AI is all about.

That said - there are a large number of people on the UA mailing lists who have a genuine interest and something like this may persuade them to fork out a subscription.

toiletduck

Macros42 wrote:

Your opinion != popular opinion.

i dont like amnesty and neither do a lot of people i know.

Velvet Vocals

Thanks Macros42, I'd forgotten about the phone calls! They are really going all out on this one. It's just a bandwagon for them to jump, with Bono at the reins of course
It's pretty underhand when you think about it... if a political party were trying to get votes this way, it would be an outrage! a scandal. But when it's AI then it's "just trying to raise awareness" :rolleyes:

Orion

toiletduck wrote:

i dont like amnesty and neither do a lot of people i know.

I'm Brian and so's my wife :rolleyes:

meditraitor

Macros42 wrote:

Your opinion != popular opinion. Are you a professional troll? May I suggest that if you have nothing to contribute to the topic then please contribute nothing.

Amnesty is made up of people from all walks of life - the common factor is that we all have a interest in human rights. I partially agree with Saint Something. I also got a phone call from them to inform me of the membership drive to get me to recruit more members. While I understand the need for increasing membership I'm not convinced that this is the way to go about it. It's not enough to make me leave but I share your concerns about people joining who don't really know what AI is all about.

That said - there are a large number of people on the UA mailing lists who have a genuine interest and something like this may persuade them to fork out a subscription.

Over your head brother,

Amnesty-Joke

And amnesty is made up of people from all walks of life

1-middle class twits dont want to work
2-stonehead twits who cant work
3-upper class twits living of daddy who dont want to work..

As for human rights, The strong will prevail , the weak need to be amputated, natural selection, its in the genes,,

Orion

Saint Something wrote:

It's pretty underhand when you think about it... if a political party were trying to get votes this way, it would be an outrage! a scandal. But when it's AI then it's "just trying to raise awareness" :rolleyes:

No there wouldn't. Political parties do it all the time. iirc Labour are on a big recruitment drive atm as well.

In a way they are trying to raise awareness. I don't mind them using radio ads or asking members to 'spread the message' so to speak - (they've done it before). But the incentive thing kind of goes against what AI stands for. Like you said it's a cause not a charity. An understanding of and belief in what AI stands for should be the main reason for joining.

toiletduck

meditraitor wrote:

1-middle class twits dont want to work
2-stonehead twits who cant work
3-upper class twits living of daddy who dont want to work..

hear hear! Amnesty describing gitmo as a "modern day gulag" just shows what class of idiots it attracts

Orion

meditraitor wrote:

Over your head brother,

Amnesty-Joke

And amnesty is made up of people from all walks of life

1-middle class twits dont want to work
2-stonehead twits who cant work
3-upper class twits living of daddy who dont want to work..

As for human rights, The strong will prevail , the weak need to be amputated, natural selection, its in the genes,,

Maybe you should learn your facts before spouting crap. The vast majority of AI members don't work for AI. Taking part in AI campaigns - be it letter writing or campaigning in other ways - is done by volunteers in their spare time - most of whom have full time jobs.

now where's that report post button.

meditraitor

Macros42 wrote:

Maybe you should learn your facts before spouting crap. The vast majority of AI members don't work for AI. Taking part in AI campaigns - be it letter writing or campaigning in other ways - is done by volunteers in their spare time - most of whom have full time jobs.

now where's that report post button.

Was talking about the running of the organisation not the subscribers,

Report away brother,,, first I will have my say, I have no respect for there leftist policies, and as Tiolet duck said above only last week the General secretary Irene Khane compared Guantanimo bay to the Gulags..
What!!!!
The Gulags, right here we go simple truths

20-30 million people died in the gullags, the conditions were monstrous, helll on earth

Guantanimo bay(not condoning it or anything) couple of thousand prisoners who get treated badly, bit of torture(not even in a physical sense)
They eat well, clean cloths, etc

What type of organisation would publicaly say something like that???

Amensty-

county

you never hear AI condemning the islamic extremists for beheading westerners but if the americain forces feed a bit pork to prisioners or put the Quoran in the toilets they go crazy,i have no respect for AI and there twisted ideals

zenith

meditraitor, I know you think you're being clever and witty and stuff: please stop or I'll ban you. You've said enough at this point, and to say more would be too much.

Orion

county wrote:

you never hear AI condemning the islamic extremists for beheading westerners

Like I said before - learn your facts.

Iraq: Condemnation of beheading

Amnesty International Strongly Condemns Beheading of Civilian

And they just took me 30 secs to find in Google.

The Corinthian

Let me preface by saying that what Amnesty International stands for is in principle both noble and altruistic. Also the majority of what follows is not specifically aimed at Amnesty International but at ‘voluntary’ or ‘charitable’ institutions in general.

The ‘Charity’ game is big business. Many of the larger charities have turnovers of hundreds of millions per year and their chief executives earn salaries comparable to those in any other private sector company. I stressed ‘any other’ because ultimately that is what these organisations are; not government or democratic bodies, but private companies that happen to have a special legal status. As a result, the underlying reason for such organisations can often become lost in the profit motive (naturally it’s not called that by them) that drives all business - this is understandable if you further consider that there are people who’s livelihoods depend upon their profitability.

Demographically different organisations are supported by different segments of society. In the case of Amnesty International, this will tend to be a well-educated, wealthy (or with expectation of future wealth in the case of students), middle class individual with a left wing bent. Support for other charity or voluntary groups will vary, but typically all will get significant if not the majority of their support from the ABC1 demographic.

Any charity or voluntary group will essentially ‘guilt’ people into support - pictures of pretty African girls (with the implied subtext of “donate or she’ll die”) or even misleading or exaggerated claims will be used. Additionally, supporting a charity has become in many cases fashionable - between badges, ribbons and T-shirts; branding and merchandising has become central to the business model. And all of this is largely due to increased competition in the charities market as different groups vie to prise support and cash from an increasingly cynical market.

Unfortunately, while the reality is that while such tactics will backfire on anyone who actually stops and thinks about what is being said to them, most consumers don’t. It’s like Spam; as much as people hate it, it ultimately works as a marketing tool. As such it’s worth their while to use such methods.

meditraitor

zenith wrote:

meditraitor, I know you think you're being clever and witty and stuff: please stop or I'll ban you. You've said enough at this point, and to say more would be too much.

Ok , not another word

county

Macros42 wrote:

Like I said before - learn your facts.

Iraq: Condemnation of beheading

Amnesty International Strongly Condemns Beheading of Civilian

And they just took me 30 secs to find in Google.

so you had to look for it,you didnt have to look for my point because it was all over sky news and the papers for about a week

Orion

I had to look for the links. I knew they had condemned them already.

county

point taken!

Orion

DadaKopf

county wrote:

so you had to look for it,you didnt have to look for my point because it was all over sky news and the papers for about a week

That's not the fault of AI, you only hear what the news channels and papers want to report.

So what's your point?

Velvet Vocals

You see county, and please take this in a positive way, getting all your information from Sky news.... isn't really the best way to go about forming your opinions. Sure look at, but don't base your entire opinion on it!
Just because something is all over the newspapers and on sky news doesn't make it fact or even right

Orion

Saint Something wrote:

You see county, and please take this in a positive way, getting all your information from Sky news.... isn't really the best way to go about forming your opinions.

Getting any information from Sky News you mean

Velvet Vocals

Macros42 wrote:

Getting any information from Sky News you mean

Yea, I mean who wants to think just like Rupert Murdock any way :rolleyes:

amp

Thread fails to meet "intellectual" qualifier and is now locked.