Kindness is breaking out all over
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This is World Kindness Week and the day after tomorrow is World Kindness Day. You didn't know? I worry that you missed Random Acts of Kindness Week earlier this year, in February. That was the week when terrorists kidnapped two CBS journalists, when the Senate reauthorized the Bush administration's domestic spying program, and when the Pentagon filed death penalty charges against six detainees at Guantanamo Bay. I guess those people didn't get the memo.
Alas, bad stuff does happen during these potted feel-good events - did someone mention last year's cyclone Sidr that killed 5,000 people in Bangladesh during Kindness Week? - but the show must go on. Who's merchandising this? Not Hallmark, the most obvious candidate. Instead it's Denver-based plutocrat Philip Anschutz, "values" merchant extraordinaire.
In another era, Anschutz would simply be called a robber baron. But in the obsequious, wealth-worshipping circumlocutions of 21st-century America, he is an entrepreneur/philanthropist. His business acumen needs no boost here. After amassing fortunes in oil and railroads, Anschutz has invested heavily in sports venues, sports teams, newspapers (!), and movie theaters. Famously reclusive, he invites comparison with Howard Hughes, not necessarily a good thing.
But Anschutz is very public in his support for what he has called "moral messages." He opened his Regal theater chain to Mel Gibson, when the actor/director couldn't find exhibitors for his super-Christian drama, "The Passion of the Christ." (No stranger to the courtroom, Anschutz eventually settled a bitter lawsuit with Gibson.) Anschutz also helped bankroll the two "Chronicles of Narnia" movies, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Prince Caspian," adapted from the Christian allegories of C.S. Lewis.
Which is where the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation and its sister charity, the Foundation for a Better Life, fit in. The FBL pays for TV spots, radio spots, and billboards around the country, celebrating values such as confidence, peace, character, and love. The messages are slick and memorable. One TV spot shows a gnarly biker being helped out by two elderly African-American women, with Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" playing in the background. Another depicts a (possibly apocryphal) event on a dark, rainswept Manhattan street, with a harried businessman surrendering his taxicab to a mother and child.
To be fair - help! I'm having a kindness attack! - Anschutz's agitprop is effective and areligious. The billboards feature noncontroversial icons such as Jackie Robinson, Albert Einstein, Shrek, Muhammad Ali, and Kermit the Frog. I suppose the Chinese authorities would consider a billboard emblazoned with the Dalai Lama's face ("Doesn't Just Wish for Peace, He Works for It") tough to swallow, but that's their problem.
The Better Life campaigns closely resemble the Mormon church's public service advertisements, emphasizing family values. In fact, FBL president Gary Dixon used to work on the Mormon ads. But he correctly points out that the Anschutz foundations aren't proselytizing anything. "It's an effort to encourage people to do acts of kindness, with a 'pass it on' mentality," he says. "We don't have a public relations firm, and we don't take out newspaper ads."
Then how will people find out about Kindness Week? "The website (www.actsofkindness.org) gets visitors from over a hundred countries, and that's how we hope the message is growing," he says. "Teachers and their classrooms are very networked. I think they will be paying attention to that week in particular."
Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com.
