World Cup Vuvuzela Horns Inspire Protest Against BP
An activist fed up with BP’s response to the oil spill has been inspired by vuvuzelas—those notorious South African horns that have caused quite a buzz at the World Cup. (How irritating are they? There was talk of banning them from games, and rocker Mick Jagger apparently couldn’t stand his seat-neighbor Leonardo DiCaprio blowing on one during the Germany/Argentina match.)
Dynamic Vuvuzela Deployment Operation 2010 is the brainchild of Adam Quirk. He explains the scheme on the project's fundraising page on microfinance site Kickstarter:
| BP is not feeling the pain they are causing in the Gulf. BP is spending millions on PR. In order to put a bit of public pressure on them, we plan to buy 100 vuvuzelas and hire 100 vuvuzela players off Craigslist to play in front of BP's International Headquarters in London for a one-day flash mob. |
Quirk aimed for $2,000 in donations; $1,000 for the vuvuzela protest and $1,000 for the Gulf Disaster Fund. As of this morning, he’d raised $4,236 (donations are being accepted until 7pm EDT today). The date of the event hasn’t been announced yet, but Quirk is posting updates on Twitter.
Quirk is sending the funds to the Center for Biological Diversity’s Gulf Disaster Fund. The video producer says, “I know this isn't going to change anything, but it will draw attention back to BP after the invevitable 24hr news cycle finds some celebrity sex scandal to distract us with.”
In terms of finding people who are willing to play the vuvuzelas for free in front of BP, something tells me Quirk won’t have any trouble rounding up willing participants.