Every year, June 25th is celebrated globally as the Day of the Seafarer, an official United Nations observance day. This year, once again, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is asking people everywhere to show their appreciation, through social media, for seafarers and their contribution to global prosperity.
At the heart of this year’s campaign is the simple sentence “Seafarers brought me….”. IMO is inviting everyone to complete the sentence with a word of their choice and post it on social media, adding the hashtag “#thankyouseafarers”. The missing word can be anything that came by sea: from the cars people drive, the food people eat, the clothes people wear, the gadgets they use or the furniture they sit on.
To help spread the campaign globally, IMO’s media and communications team has developed a toolkit , which features a variety of different content items and materials all designed to reinforce the campaign’s message.
In previous years, participants have used the online toolkit to create their own campaign content, ranging from a simple photograph posted on social media through to more imaginative uses such as banners on public transport or cakes, baked in the form of the campaign logo! Blogs, videos and photo collections are other ways to participate in the campaign.
All those who join the campaign will be adding their voice to the millions of others who, on this one day, take the time to stop and thank those who work so hard, in the face of great hardship, to improve the lives of everyone.
[mappress] Press Release, June 19, 2014; Image: IMO