Output 3: How Christmas Lights Helped Guerillas Put Down Their Guns

For the third output for my critical portfolio, I was given two options for the expected output. A creative connections mix and match exercise, or to write a critical reflection on a TED talk titled “How Christmas Lights Helped Guerillas Put Down Their Guns”.

 

In 2014, A TED Talk was hosted by Jose Miguel Sokoloff titled “How Christmas Lights Helped Guerillas Put Down Their Guns”.

 

In the talk, Sokoloff spoke about how 17,000 guerillas in Colombia were demobilized through the power of advertising.

 

Colombia homed one of the world’s oldest standing guerilla groups which has been around for almost 50 years. Known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, this group of guerillas financed themselves through kidnapping, extortion, drug trade and illegal mining.

 

Thankfully, in recent times, efforts have been made for a peaceful resolution between these guerillas. It started with Christmas lights saying "If Christmas can come to the jungle, you can come home. Demobilize. At Christmas, everything is possible."

 

Sokoloff and his team also made additional efforts not just through Christmas lights, but through other means as well, like getting the former commanders of the guerillas to fly on helicopters with microphones explaining to their former comrades that “there is a better life out there” or that “they’re doing good”.

 

The additional efforts also included asking people and even acquaintances of the guerillas to send about 6,000 messages to the guerillas through the river network as the rivers in Colombia are considered the highways of the jungle. The messages included toys, candy, and even jewelry. Surprisingly, when the people went back to the riverside to check if the messages were collected, most of them were taken despite the expectations that they had to come back and re-collect them if they weren’t taken.

 

The final step of Sokoloff’s efforts paid off as these led to peace talks, followed by a campaign which promoted Colombia’s success in the world cup and encouraged the pubic to “save a seat for the guerillas”. Telling them to get out of the jungle and take a seat with the people, signifying a yearn for unity and peace.

 

Ultimately, the biggest lesson I have learnt while watching this TED Talk is that anything is achievable through the power of communications and media. Advertising was indeed the main powerhouse in demobilizing the 17,000 guerillas in Colombia. If communication is used effectively and is used for altruistic motives such as the ones Jose Miguel Sokoloff possessed, perhaps the world isn’t such a bad place after all.