I stumbled upon this website a couple of weeks ago called The Fun Theory. It’s a pretty simple concept: to get people to change their behaviors, you have to give them an incentive – in this case, make it fun! The projects range from bottom-less trashcans that give a Mary Poppins bag-like illusion of your trash falling forever to turning recycling bins into an arcade to get more people to recycle glass.
My favorite is this one, the Piano Staircase. Have a look:
Sure this works in Europe, but do you think fun would overcome American laziness? I vote we try this here! On that note, you can submit your ideas and potentially have them come to life! In fact, there’s a competition going on now until Dec. 1st to submit the best idea you can think of. The top one right now is a visual design that appears on the mirror when you wash your hands, supposedly leading to more handwashing and proper (i.e. 30 seconds!) handwashing. Georgetown could sure use those to break the Swine curse outbreaks.
From a marketing standpoint, it sounds like a great idea. We all need a little more fun in our lives, and ultimately we’ll change our behaviors if it makes us feel good. So, what else can this be applied to? How about binge drinking on college campuses? (Ever since Ad Majorem (the Georgetown ad team that goes to the NSAC competition in NYC every May) and our campaign to stop binge drinking, I keep thinking about ways it could actually be successful.) What about eating healthier?
What do you think? Is making something fun enough to change behavior? Would something else work better?
