Make Poverty History: Political Communication in Action

Make Poverty History was a major episode of protest that took place in 2005 in the United Kingdom with the aim of influencing the G8 meeting in July of that year in Edinburgh. This book follows the campaign throughout its lifetime and unpacks the tensions that developed around the branding of Make Poverty History, particularly the conflict between campaigners and marketeers over the content of messages. Looking at how attitudes towards government and political opportunities influenced the negotiation of communications, it analyses how these were understood by the campaign's three audience segments: the mass public, the interested and the activists. It looks at public stereotypes on global poverty and whether the campaign managed to modify them. It maps out Make Poverty History's frame on economic justice and confronts it with audience reactions. The book ends by looking at the campaign's troubled relationship with celebrities.