The United Nations Development Programme Fights Ebola With GIFs

by Corinna Kirsch on December 2, 2014 GIF + Newswire

Mark Pendergrast, "Ist Aid 2 West Africa." $200 starting bid on Paddle8.

Mark Pendergrast, “1st Aid 2 West Africa.” $200 starting bid on Paddle8.

People like GIFs. People don’t want Ebola.

Those two sentences, it seems, spawned a fundraising campaign at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Today, the UNDP launched a GIF-art auction with the express purpose to fight Ebola. First-of-its-kind. We did not see this coming. While we have no idea how this money will help those on the ground, it should be better than nothing, as the saying goes.

And we do like some of the works in the auction! We’re looking at you, Alex McLeod, and your LOSTISLAND.gif. That might be it, though. A quick look at the page and you won’t find many “artists.” There is GIF of a carrot kicking a donut.

So why is this event happening today? Today is Giving Tuesday, part of a now-global initiative to get everyone to empty their pockets from Black Friday—which now starts on Thanksgiving evening—and well into December. Do not ask why or when, just give.

If nothing else, the UNDP GIF exhibition isn’t marketed as hastily as Band Aid 30: “Buy the song. Stop the virus. #BandAid30.”

 

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