When I was in university studying Communications, I wrote a paper called “Making Environmentalism Fun and Sexy”. It was about how people might have more success in advancing their causes by marketing them as fun things to join instead of militantly ramming ideologies down people’s throats and putting them on the defensive.

Part of my inspiration came from a t-shirt company I had come across online called Beaver Power. I don’t think it exists anymore, but in its day (circa 2002-ish), the BP team would attend music festivals and sell their tongue-in-cheek Beaver Power t-shirts, with proceeds going toward green energy projects. It all seemed like such a fun idea and, of course, I wanted a t-shirt to show my support and proclaim my “Beaver Power!” It would certainly be a conversation starter.

Having worked in marketing for several alternative/green/vegan organizations since I finished school, I’ve realized that this approach is rare. For some reason, the majority of people I have come across who have good intentions behind their organizations or businesses–animal rights, saving the planet, healthy eating, etc.–seem to have absolutely no grasp on how to get their voices heard in a way that’s positively received by their opponents.

Take the Occupy movement in Vancouver, for example. When it all started, I remember walking by the protest site and feeling my heart swell at the thought of all of these people rising up against injustice. Different social organizations were banding together for the greater good. But these feelings quickly diminished when I watched it disintegrate into a terrible eyesore, without an organized communications plan or marketable catchphrase in sight. The result: citizens, even ones like myself who usually support such causes, dismissed them as a bunch of stoners using the public library land to basically sit around in a hazy tent city, where someone actually ended up dying of an overdose. It had been reduced to not much more than the annual marijuana legalization “protest” also held at the library, which I’ve come to detest (and don’t get me wrong, I am in full support of marijuana legalization).

If you can’t even convince the converted, what chance do you stand with those you are truly trying to reach?

Then there are the militant vegans. My friends run a vegan blog in Vancouver and believe (and I agree) that the way to get more people to eat vegan food, is to make them delicious vegan food, and show them how fun and easy it is to make it themselves. They aren’t militant by any means, and you’d never catch them wearing shirts that say “I don’t eat meat because I’m not a jerk” because that’s a jerky thing to do. No one likes jerks, and they certainly aren’t interested in opening their minds to hear the jerk’s opinion, or even consider adopting it for themselves. Once they have the delicious vegan food in their tummies, then maybe they’ll start asking some questions about why someone would choose to eat that way, and then you have your opportunity to state your case to someone who actually wants to listen. You might be surprised at how often this happens, and it’s usually the perpetrators of the cheesiest meat jokes.

Another example, albeit an extreme one, is Christian missionaries. They travel to starving third world countries and offer the starving children a scoop of peanut butter if they will listen to some verses from the Bible. Or they help out in some other way and while they’re at it, introduce the people to the Lord. They’re not standing on the corner like the doomsday prophet screaming about hellfire and death if you don’t repent. That guy’s crazy–no one listens to him. I am not condoning preying on the less fortunate, in fact I completely disagree with this practice, but this example illustrates my point.

Then there’s the other end of the spectrum: Upworthy.

It’s a content aggregator started by folks previously employed at Facebook, Reddit and Buzzfeed. The Upworthy team uses hyper online marketing techniques to make content about important issues as shareable as cute cat videos and celebrity gossip. They do this by writing up to 25 headlines for every post, and rigorously testing which ones get the most clicks, then using those headlines to drive insane amounts of traffic to their website. This practice has garnered them millions of daily page views, and in 2013, Fast Company called them “the fastest growing media company of all time”. And they don’t make their money from ad revenue–it comes from collecting email addresses for various causes for a fee.

Viral marketing like this certainly makes people click, and Upworthy’s statistics prove that, but does it make them care? Or is Upworthy just the slacktivist’s messiah? Time will tell. Perhaps some of the causes Upworthy supports can attest to that, but I have yet to find that data.

One danger, however, is becoming too reliant on the hyper-marketing approach. Personally, I’m becoming fed up with the patronizing nature of Upworthy’s headlines, which almost places them in the same category as the fluffy, time-wasting content out there on the web. Too many “You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!” headlines followed by stories that fall flat of my disbelief. It’s starting to resemble “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, so there needs to be a balance between the marketing and the substance.

How can you make your cause fun and sexy?

And by “sexy” I don’t mean slapping a lettuce bikini on the latest celebrity trainwreck–I mean making it attractive in a positive way that doesn’t simultaneously set back another important cause.

Short of offering your opponents a scoop of peanut butter, here are a few things you might consider:

Make them laugh — Try making a joke about a commonly held misconception about your cause. I did this when I was content manager for an eco-friendly daily deal site called ethicalDeal. This company does a great job of using the Groupon model to get more people to try green/healthy products and services by lowering the cost barrier. Here’s an example of a deal email I wrote for a veggie-friendly event:

“Some people think living a healthy, eco-friendly lifestyle involves eating twigs dipped in mud and rubbing magic rocks under your arms to stifle your natural musk. Discover why nothing could be further from the truth with today’s ethicalDeal: $5 gets you and a friend into the Taste of Health vegetarian/vegan food and lifestyle fair…”

Don’t be a jerk — Don’t attack someone’s values and think that they will want to listen to your opinion and instantly change theirs. It’s just not going to work. If you truly want to advance your cause, be nice, respect their right to their opinion and they might just show you the respect of listening to yours.

Don’t make assumptions —Just because someone is a big Walmart fan or eats at McDonald’s all the time doesn’t mean they’re a bad person, or that they understand the implications of their actions. Maybe their family always shops at Walmart because it’s the most economical option in these tough economic times. Maybe they eat at McDonald’s because their hard-earned money goes further there. Don’t assume that they know that Walmart notoriously pays its employees very little and runs locally-owned shops into the ground. Don’t assume they know McDonald’s food is making them sick and will likely cost them more in health care in the long run. You don’t know where they are coming from.

Don’t be a hypocrite — If you don’t like someone’s dogmatic worldview, just be aware that yours may be different, but just as dogmatic. My favourite example of this is the atheists who constantly bash the intolerance of religious fundamentalists, when in fact, they’re being just as intolerant and hateful themselves.

If you love your fellow humans, and truly wish to help them by promoting your cause, do it with love. Entertain them. Make them laugh. Engage in thoughtful, respectful discussions where you present your arguments and hear theirs. And if you can’t stand to listen, move along.

“Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.” — Leonardo da Vinci