GBH is the largest content producer for PBS and the creator and producers of iconic shows such as Frontline, Masterpiece, and Arthur. In May, The White House issued an executive order called “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” with the purpose of ending funding for free educational programs on PBS including the beloved shows distributed by PBS KIDS. This was a direct threat to our organization and we needed to rally support quickly from our audiences to demand continued support of their public media stations and content. In partnership with the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB), PBS, and our lobbying group APTS, public media stations were asked to come up with ways to reach their audiences and spread the message of the “Protect My Public Media” campaign. For Arthur, we knew the one image that would make the most impact to help spread the word about the importance of public media: the iconic image of the “Arthur fist,” which had been used by others in memes for years. Following the initial post we continued to use the Arthur brand with “meme-style” posts to ask public media supporters to contact their elected officials ahead of the final house and representative and senate vote that would decide our funding.
Arthur is unique compared to other kids brands because it’s been active since 1996. Our audience is not just kids but people who grew up watching PBS kids who are now adults themselves. Our goal is to keep their relationship with Arthur healthy and positive.
Arthur’s longevity and success can be largely accredited to the show’s relatability, and we use that same framework for our social strategy. We hope to resonate with our Gen Z and Millennial audiences, recognizing their feelings and struggles, and do what we can to provide the emotional support Arthur is known for. And of course, bring some laughter and joy, too. It’s an added bonus if Arthur is top of mind when they eventually go to choose programming for their own children. We do this by tapping into the over 25-year catalog of content and marrying that with fan nostalgia and building community.
We call our campaign internally “The Day We Unleashed The Fist” because it’s not a meme we use lightly. Arthur is a children’s show first and foremost, and we do have an obligation to keep our social accounts PG. Our relationship with the fist meme is a complicated one but if there was ever a time to use it, it was immediately following the executive order calling for the defunding of PBS. We knew to ask people to listen to our arguments for why federal funding matters, we’d have to get them to care. The fist carries immediate recognition, strong emotional resonance, and a form of frankness that can be challenging to nail with a brand social channel. Having never previously wielded the power of the first from the official Arthur POV also brought a certain level of seriousness. It was the perfect vessel for getting our message out quickly and effectively. Like any digital format, memes are not always the right choice for every message. But when they work, they work. On top of stopping the scroll with an attention-grabber like the fist, we made sure to accompany the meme with what we felt was very necessary background info around the executive order and very direct calls-to-action in the post copy.
Following the initial fist post, we continued to reinforce the messaging of the “Support My Public Media” campaign by asking audiences to reach out to their elected officials or give to their local stations. This was especially important before the vote to decide our funding with the House of Representative and and the Senate. We continued to use videos and “meme-style” posts to push the message and were lucky to have fans and followers to take that message and push it with their own audiences such as Mychal Threets, Blair Imani, and Sydney Raz. We also worked closely with Arthur creator Marc Brown to develop a marketing campaign centered around the fist in creating stickers and t-shirts that were available for purchase or by signing up for a GBH membership.
The initial meme post had over 12 million views, with 90% of those views coming from non-followers of the Arthur account. Including the fist, our posts together reached over 28 million impressions and drove over 15,000 clicks to the Protect My Public Media website.
Since the success of the first post, GBH has made the meme into shirts, stickers and was featured on our 1,350 sq ft digital mural overlooking the Mass Pike. The mural itself had over 4 million impressions and our video post "spotting" the mural had over 4 million views across IG, TikTok and Facebook. Arthur creator and author Marc Brown wrote an Op-Ed in support of the Protect My Public Media Campaign for USA Today and The Washington Post. Our posts about the vote to ultimately defund us also reached BuzzFeed. Follow up posts from Arthur super fans including Blair Imani, Mychal Threets, and Sidney Raz, Ayo Edibiri (added Protect my Public Media in her link in bio) and Tyler the Creator.
Entire campaign stats as of today:
