Maybe the most fascinating thing about the WE saga (to me anyhow!) is the path the Kielburgers took over the years from doing labor-left activism w unions, to delivering re-branding campaigns & PR services to multinational corporations w bad reputations.
canadaland.com/podcast/chapte…
canadaland.com/podcast/chapte…
When Craig started at age 12, Canadian labor unions embraced & funded his cause. After all, jobs shipped overseas to child workers/slaves meant fewer manufacturing jobs here in Canada... Craig kinda began as an anti-globalization crusader!
WE 1.0 (Free The Children) was about boycotts & factory raids. Their cause was de facto political.
But over time and with Marc's influence, Craig absorbed the ethos of "social entrepreneurship" and began dropping the jargon of Silicon Valley tech moguls.
But over time and with Marc's influence, Craig absorbed the ethos of "social entrepreneurship" and began dropping the jargon of Silicon Valley tech moguls.
Meanwhile, WE's messaging to kids was optimized over the years away from anything that sounded angry, political, or activist-y, and towards self-empowerment/self-help culture. "Be the change!" etc. 
The term 'activism' gave way in WE messaging to 'volunteering' which gave way to 'changemaking,' which was marketed to kids by celebs like Demi Lovato as a way for young people to achieve their own self-realization, a birthday present to yourself.
This sunny message had much broader appeal than a raging crusade against foreign carpet-makers. A part of the process was removing friction from charity work. Their slogan became "WE makes doing good doable" and celebs sold this low-effort angle to kids...
(Note the recent emphasis on "wellness" and such, even before the scandal.)
Becoming a 'changemaker' was easy, they promised. You didn't have to go to a protest or boycott cool products. You could just download the WE app or like WE on Facebook. WE would take care of the hard part. facebook.com/WEmovement/vid…
At this point, WE's business model had shifted towards building a youth marketing funnel. Yes, some kids still raised funds directly for WE or paid ME to WE for voluntourism trips...
...but many, many more kids became accessible/monetizable to WE (at school, through WE's in-class programming, and at home, via Facebook, etc.) This access to kids at scale was then rented to corporate partners like Allstate, Dow Chemical, Microsoft, etc.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the corporations who "donated" to WE included brands with troubled or toxic reputations...
Our first big exposé on WE by @jwvkerr revealed that WE had partnered with companies that Craig might once have boycotted: Unilever and Hershey both use child labor in their supply chains at an industrial scale. canadaland.com/craig-kielburg…
WE's response was that these were "carefully selected companies which were doing the right thing" by promising to stop using child labour by 2020. You have to wonder what 12 year-old Craig would have made of that argument... facebook.com/WEmovement/vid…
Meanwhile, Craig & Marc were coaching corporations that millennial employees will accept pay-cuts if they can be convinced that their work has "purpose". cnbc.com/video/2018/03/…
The journey of WE perhaps reached its natural conclusion with the news that they are pulling out of 7 of the 8 countries they did development work in, but doubling-down on their "at home" charity work in the U.S. canadaland.com/we-charity-pla…
What you're arguably left with are the optics of charity, without most of the charity part. American kids 'doing good' and 'changemaking' with themselves as the people both doing the charity, and receiving it.
A few Kenyan development projects remain, which still figure largely in the marketing materials...
As for those companies "doing the right thing" - well, they didn't. Hershey still uses child labor. mcall.com/business/mc-bi…
But WE continued to shine its halo on Hershey nonetheless...this time in a charity/marketing campaign with less ambitious/controversial goals. facebook.com/11123188988386…
So what happens once WE's halo loses its shine?
We'll get to that in episode 5.
For now, everything above is discussed in detail on today's episode of The White Saviors. canadaland.com/podcast/chapte…
We'll get to that in episode 5.
For now, everything above is discussed in detail on today's episode of The White Saviors. canadaland.com/podcast/chapte…
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