What started as a viral internet sensation has turned into a way for people to get involved in saving the environment. The phenomenon of flash mobs started as a viral video on the internet and has quickly morphed into a way for people to make a statement about issues that are important to them, protest against something, or to get involved in community projects. Flash mobs are large groups of people that suddenly appear at a predetermined location that has been spread around the internet. The large groups have often been used for surprise protests but have also been used as ways to get people involved in community projects.
Most recently, a flash mob campaign was used to get people to help clean up litter surrounded the River Thames. The volunteers were recruited through a viral internet campaign that quickly spread the message to thousands of people over the internet. Thames21, an environmental charity, started the campaign as a way to quickly reach young people who were interested in helping to clean up their community. Large amounts of rubbish had washed ashore from the River Thames, so Thames21 used the popularity of flash mobbing to gather volunteers to clean it up.
The charity said that viral internet campaigns were a quick, inexpensive, and easy way to reach thousands of people. The charity said that the campaign allowed them to reach volunteers that would have been very difficult to contact otherwise. Traditional methods of campaigning for the environment are too slow and often involve methods which are counterintuitive to the cause, such as newspaper ad and fliers.
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