Ominous static, a media montage, and an awareness of the criticisms levelled at the previous video’s oversimplification of complex issues introduce KONY2012 Part II: Beyond Famous. Gone is Jason Russell’s direction and narration, and instead Ben Keesey CEO of Invisible Children steps up to the mic. Comments have been disabled on the video, but not on the rest of the Internet.
Part II has the same ‘hip’ editing and music, inspiring shots of multi-ethnic youths and buzz words like ‘Digital Revolution’ as the original, but lacks the central narrative of Russell and his son that gave the original its didactic (and perhaps preachy, oversimplifying) feel. Plus there’s no mention of Russell, which seems a little strange considering the huge role he’s played thus far. He’s suddenly become the naked elephant in the internet’s most scrutinised room. The video is still much of the same, and it places a lot of emphasis on Cover the Night, the advocacy and awareness event taking place worldwide on April 20th. Considering the ‘obstacles’ Invisible Children has encountered in the interim period between the first and second videos, will you, or do you at all feel compelled to participate in the event?
The consensus seems (according to my Facebook feed) that those who bought in to the original hype, received the starter packs and made donations, now no longer feel like associating themselves with the Invisible Children brand in the wake of Russell’s meltdown and the barrage of criticism the videos received. Everyone just wants to make fapping jokes.
