Pakistan has been through some of its most difficult times recently. The war in Swat which has forced one of the biggest sacrifice from our people, has at the same time, brought people together. This 14th August, 2009, people in Swat celebrated Independence like never before. The simple reason according to a local was that “We Never Knew What Independence Was before All this. Long Live Pakistan, Long Live Pak Army”.

While the people of Swat and our Army sacrificed for the future of our children and showed true valor and love for their country, another distinct and patriotic step for the betterment of Pakistan has been taken by a small team of individuals who wanted to do something for their Motherland. This Step, rather Mission has been called “Go Green Pakistan” and has brought a new concept to nationhood for the youth and elders alike.

THE BACKGROUND
This campaign is the brainchild of one patriotic individual Farhan Masood. It started when near the month of July,2009, Farhan realized that Social Media and the power of internet can be used to promote the true standing of Pakistan. Confusion seems to surround the image of Pakistan, The land of the pure; the true nature of its welcoming people has been harmed by propaganda and the intense negative reporting of local and foreign media alike.

THE ORIGINATOR & SUPPORTERS
During August 2009, it has been seen that many Pakistani users put up the flag as their Profile Picture. Seeing this trend Farhan edited his photograph to support a green background and the picture of a flag. As Farhan was already working with a team of individuals who had dedicated some of their time to promote Pakistan’s image online, when they saw his Picture all of them and his friends on Twitter, Facebook and other social media portals wanted to have a similar picture. This gave him an idea and his pragmatist approach made it a dream fulfilled. He launched a campaign called ” Go Green Pakistan”.

GREEN DISPLAY PICS
Many more people volunteered and a team of 30 were able to produce 10,000 Green Pictures to celebrate a socially very green Independence Day (14th August). Just as we put up flags on our house and buildings are decorated. This 14th August, we must say it was a record number of youth having green pictures on their social profiles. Making it clear to the world how much they are proud of being Pakistanis which makes one ecstatic and emotional by seeing the unity and love for their country. In some countries flags have also become a fashion statement which shows how proud they are of supporting their countries flag and a similar trend was seen as a result of this movement.

TOP of the TWITTER TOPICS
This campaign did not end here. It brought many people on the same platform and through that platform many new brain stormed ideas were come up with. “Trend Team” was one of them which worked on the night of August 14th and the next whole day to make #Pakistan a trending topic on Twitter (a popular microblogging site). This small community was able to take Pakistan up to the 2nd most popular trend of the day and was also able to pursue other Pakistanis to join in and spread positive word about Pakistan by using #Pakistan and let the people of the world know who we are. This ended up being very successful and many foreigners also joined in the campaign and enquired about Pakistan, bewildered to see such a positive minded group of people from Pakistan which was contrary to what they had always heard on popular media.

MEDIA COVERAGE:
In the meanwhile, mainstream media also took notice of this fast forward campaign and presented exclusive reports in their Pakistan Independence Day Broadcasts. Geo TV News , Dawn News (Breakfast at Dawn: by Naveen Naqvi) and TV 1 ( Discussion by Mr.Faisal Qureshi) broadcasted reports/ discussions on this new phenomenon taking over the social media sites. This also helped in increasing general awareness about this campaign among the masses.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER CAMPAIGNS LIKE THIS ON NET?
Some other projects and missions the like of Go Green Pakistan have been initiated in other countries as well like :
-> the We Love NHS (National Health Service) campaign by the British people against some American politicians calling their health plan provided by the government evil.

-> Another campaign was recently run by the Jewish internet defense force on twitter for a soldier who had been captured by Hamas; and

-> no one can forget the hash tag Iran election that was their for months and was a cause of the high questioning around the world about the situation of the country leading to a ban on twitter in the country.

-> These campaigns used the Hash tag “#” (to be easily found on net), blogs and discussion forums but “Go Green Pakistan” was everywhere on the web through pictures, through trending on Twitter and also on Lahore Tweet Up (Twitterers) meeting bringing bloggers and avid internet users together to discuss how they can use the internet to make the truth about Pakistan popular and shun the propaganda done by different forces and people of Pakistan having different motives.

WHAT IS SO UNIQUE ABOUT PAKISTAN-GO GREEN?
You must be wondering why we are talking about all this now. Why we are saying that it was one of the best campaigns the world has seen? Its all because it leaves one impressed by its viral nature and the efficient use of only social media to spread the word of a Positive Pakistan. The word of development and future oriented society.

-> This campaign was able to project a better image and also bring Pakistanis of different profession on the same platform and speak their heart out.

-> It can also be called one of the most creative and socially viral campaign, the likes of which Pakistan has never seen and one of the few campaigns to get so popular worldwide.

-> From a marketers point of view, this campaign is nothing but an opportunity to learn for countries and governments at how they can improve their countries brand worldwide.

-> It also is a learning opportunity for the government of Pakistan how they can improve the image by just propagating positive image of Pakistan through social media and also try and convince the popular media to do so.

-> But the one thing that is the most commendable is how a small team of 30 people was able to edit 10,000 pictures in abt 22 days till Independence Day (14th August 2009) and to make it gratifying for the people to support their flags.

The trend now is that we get queries everyday from friends and their family members as to how we all got such classy pics with the flag behind us and have received so many pictures from people to get the same look.

NOW, it’s trendy to be “Pakistani” again … the nationalistic approach is coming back which is already exciting us to the core.

FUTURE?
Seeing this trend, Go Green Pakistan has become an ever green project. They have to date edited 14000+ display pics in total. We don’t have much to say as words don’t do justice to the work they are doing, taking out time for their country from their daily lives to serve it and spread positive news for a better future.

-> These volunteers of Pakistan have also offered people to get new pictures if they are done with the old ones so that the profiles may remain green and the flag may remain in our hearts forever.

-> Its also serving as a platform to revive our IDENTITY as Pakistanis, be proud of what we are and what Pakistan has given to us.

-> Its calling all the Pakistani netizens to spread the message of LOVE & HOPE to the whole world!

Let’s get our Pictures done green. Let’s tell the people who we really are.

Let’s make sure that everyday that we sit on the internet we propagate something positive about our country.

Let’s make the future for its inhabitants bright and let’s bring a proud generation forward.

Let’s tell everyone that we are engineers, doctors, business men, teachers, students, scholars and not terrorists. We are Pakistanis.

Pakistan Zindabad

(By: Umair Sandhu & Rumaisa Mohani)

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