POP 101: Getting the Word Out to Tens of Thousands: PRI Adds Animation to Pro-Life Arsenal

As far as we know, we are the only pro-life group with its own cartoon. We think this is something worth bragging about.

As of this writing, the first episode in PRI’s mini-cartoon series, entitled “Overpopulation: The Making of a Myth,” has garnered over 50,000 views. Of course, anything less than a million views is not a landslide by YouTube standards, but this healthy (and steadily growing) number represents real interest — interest that is being fed by dozens of blogs and web sites that have picked up the video for a variety of reasons.

It also represents a personal best for PRI. Since we started producing videos back in 2006, nothing we have done has garnered so much attention so quickly. Most of the credit for this goes to the video’s primary architect, PRI’s Joseph Powell, who wrote, narrated, and animated the video himself.

The video itself is simple: a narrator tells the story of where the myth of overpopulation originated, and simple animated figures act it out — to humorous effect. The style is deliberate. Its calculated discourse with dry moments of humor is a style most often employed by liberal activists and “green” PR campaigns. Tens of thousands of YouTube viewers, from both sides of the aisle, have gotten the joke.

In conjunction with this video, PRI has launched a new web site, one dedicated specifically to answering overpopulation questions. This site (www.overpopulationisamyth.com) is designed to work seamlessly with the video to educate the viewer in the same engaging and humorous way. Each one of these videos is easily downloaded from the site. PowerPoint presentations are also available, designed to make arguments against this myth easy to research and present.

The response to the video has been tremendous. Within hours of posting it, the e-mails and comments began to fly in with a vengeance. Critics insulted our math and accused us of making up our facts, despite the fact that the video’s science is very clearly laid out at www.overpopulationisamyth.com. Others tried to shift the ground of the debate, arguing that overpopulation has never really been about space at all, but resources. We’ll tackle this argument in a future video. But the position of the real overpopulation zealots — again, easily available on the web site — is that we’re running out of room, not just resources.

Others simply raged about our format. Why? Because they were irritated that a message they found so clearly repugnant was being delivered in what one commenter described as “hip, computer-nerd” packaging. We took special pride in that one.

Ultimately, we think that this series of simple cartoons, combined with the scientific, yet accessible thoroughness of our new web site, will be a valuable tool for educating the public about pro-life issues.

You can find the video at www.youtube.com/colinpri1, or just visit www.overpopulationisamyth.com. More videos are coming soon!

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