# Drop the Debt runs viral e-mail campaign

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2001/08/01/drop-debt-runs-viral-email-campaign/
- Published: 2001-08-01T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Drop the Debt has used a hard-hitting viral e-mail campaign to help persuade G8 
leaders to write off the debts of African countries.
Drop the Debt sent its e-mail
message to demonstrate how many children were dying “due to Third World debt.” The
e-mail encouraged recipients to type in their birth debt, and this was used to calculate
how many children had died since your last birthday as a result of the debt burden.
The number then increased by one every 4.5 seconds.

The e-mail was sent to 16,000 people. Designed by Hedgeapple, the campaign services
were donated since Drop the Debt said they had no advertising budget. The advert
was seen by 61,000 people in the first week: clearly the viral nature of the message
had taken off. A further 50,500 people viewed the ad in the second week. By the 
end of the G8 summit in Genoa 34,652 e-mails had been sent to the world leaders 
asking for the debt burden to be relieved.

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