Quite often when we write about something related to Twitter, it’s funny or stupid — or both. But it’s important to remember that Twitter at its core is a powerful medium for disseminating information. And sometimes that power can be used for good — like fighting cancer.
Drew Olanoff, a man fairly well known in web circles, recently got some horrible news: He has cancer. That’s just about the worst news anyone could ever want to hear. But rather than sit around and feel bad about it, Olanoff decided to be proactive and use the bad situation for some good. He teamed up with developer Mike Demers to create Blame Drew’s Cancer, a site that asks you to blame everything that goes wrong in your life, on Drew’s cancer.
What’s great about this is that people love to use Twitter to bitch about things. Hell, I do it just as much as anyone — it’s a great past time. But usually those tweets just come off as lame complaints to most of your followers. But now, using the #BlameDrewsCancer hash-tag, all of these tweets are pulled into the site, where they will be tallied to lead to what will hopefully be a large donation to the American Cancer Society and the Make a Wish Foundation.
As a person who’s been heavily involved in the web space for some time across a range of companies, Olanoff realized Twitter was a perfect medium for his message. And just a few days after the launch of the site, it’s working to great effect. This morning, the cause was a top trending topic on Twitter. And even Lance Armstrong, who has just under 1 million followers, tweeted it out.
Here are some other good ones:
betosando I #BlameDrewsCancer for the War in the Middle East
Farhoudi I blame the US’s 3-0 loss to Costa Rica on Drew’s cancer. http://blamedrewscancer.com
sneezymonica I #BlameDrewsCancer for my sore feet! http://blamedrewscancer.com/
rhonigwachs I #blamedrewscancer for proprietary linux drivers
Luckily, Olanoff’s Hodgkins Lymphoma has a good cure rate. And we wish him the best of luck as he undergoes months of treatment. But what he needs right now is for some companies to step up to the plate and pledge to donate $1 for every unique person that tweets out his #blamedrewscancer message.
Pretty much every company these days is talking about how it can use Twitter to futher its brand. I see no better opportunity than this, right here, right now.
BTW. I somehow ended up with #DrewsHat (pictured in this article) after partying at SXSW. I still have it at my apartment. How did this come to be? I #blamedrewscancer.
Drew please pickup your hat when you’re in SF next. It’s a nice hat and it’s your signature hat.
Yeah i think it falls in line with the “what happens at SXSW…” rule.
Stay safe man. The hat hasn’t been worn since I acquired it and rests safely in my bookshelf. Rock on.
This follows under stupid all right! I blame drew for this stupid post!
please #blamedrewscancer, not drew himself. he’s actually a really nice guy.
It’s ok, if someone feels better blaming me for something, thats alright by me.
I #blamedrewscancer for reading this article!
LOL @ blamedrewscancer spam:
BNP, #freemaxb, Blame Drew’s Cancer http://tr.im/nfJm secure-payday-loans-cash-advance http://tr.im/nfJJ
http://twitter....atus/2019494078
LOL @ blamedrewscancer spam:
http://twitter....atus/2019494078
something went wrong
I #blamedrewscancer for that poster not knowing that the U.S. only lost 3-1!
ha!
I blame drews cancer for my girlfriends bad breath..
Thank you for the support MG. Ev from Twitter dropped me an email of support today, and I think that this is total proof that a medium like Twitter (as dumb as some people want to make it out to be), connects people. From all over. And that’s ok by me.
That’s great Drew, obviously, as you know, I completely agree.
Regarding bitching on twitter, did you check your utils lately? Example: http://utils.me/#peterurban
I #blamedrewscancer that the day before a major update always turns into a 24h marathon (note: it’s not bad planning or over-confident developers it can olny be Drew’s cancer).
I blame drew’s cancer, on the swine flu outbreak.
#blamesdrewscancer for the fact we have to put up with self-serving Mahalo posts on Techcrunch, even though the company is neither a good idea nor has a viable business model.
My uncle just passed from Prostate Cancer and another one recently diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. Does this deserve a twit? there is nothing funny about cancer.
This is a slap on the face for people who are afraid of death who are going through cancer!
Shame on you all for supporting this! and I hope you recover Drew. But, I don’t blame my good life on your cancer, this is not a joke.
Also I will ask people not to follow Drew and to stop commenting on this article now.
Ok we’ll stop commenting.
*whoops*
I #blamedrewscancer for you not seeing the good side of this concept. Each person deals with bad news. Drew is putting a positive spin on this bad news and not letting it control his life.
I also #blamedrewscancer for me not reading my comment before posting it.
I ment to same ‘Each person deals with bad news in their own way’.
I’m sorry that you took this the wrong way. I understand that Cancer is not a joke. I have gone through a lot of it with my family and friends. It’s very serious. But the problem is that people are uncomfortable talking about it and facing it. Fear isn’t something to run away from. Also, I made sure to call it BlameDrewsCancer, as I did not want to pull others into what I am trying to do.
Please reconsider your stance.
i love drew. i don’t know him but clearly he’s brilliantly creative and has a heart and sense of humor about this. with his attitude, great things will come to him!
i #blamedrewscancer for my muffin top =o(
lame
Yes, you are.
I #blamedrewscancer for the great layout of the website!
It is a nice looking site.
Mike did an amazing job. It made me cry.
F@H for team 37726!
I blame @LittleBabyJESUS for every single thing. Oh, wait, I am Little Baby Jesus. Tweet me up!
I blame Drew’s cancer for Drew’s cancer.
Hope you get well soon, Drew!
Lame and tactless.
Like everything else around here it never monetizes to anybody’s satisfaction.
I lost my girlfriend at about 1 am on Dec. 24, 1995 after breast cancer came back as bone cancer.
God bless you Farrah! They may not tell it the way you’d like but we all understood you loud and clear.
I #blamedrewscancer for preventing my show of support for @realdrewcarey (and for saying that http://twitter....m/realdrewcarey was an impostor).
Maybe Drew’s cancer blames Drew’s ego for needing it’s 15 minutes of fame? Really, this is a time to become at-one with oneself and the cosmos, which means destroying the ego.
Rounding up a bunch of soulless twitter morons at a time like this to splash around some lame, ill-conceived, pointless egotistical meme conjures up about the same spiritual sediment as a drunken nursing home scat bukkake festival.
Thank you for the laugh!
I came across Drew’s cancer site yesterday (forgot how exactly, but i did.) Thought the idea was pretty awesome.
I’ve been in situations where I’ve casually mentioned the “cancer” word, and every one tenses up, and I get a whisper in my ear, “So and so has cancer. We don’t talk about it.”
Never understood that position.
I #blamedrewscancer for the world’s fear of communication. *Goes to tweet such*
What is your opinion of the rumored merger of YouTube, Twitter, and facebook into Youtwitface?
Drew’s website registration expired. It is now parked by GoDaddy.
http://www.drewolanoff.com/
http://whois.do...drewolanoff.com
Haha, I blame my cancer for that. All fixed up now
http://pages.te...yalVic09/rkuder
Donate… to help beat cancer.
even lance armstrong. that is really odd hence he never talked about cancer before in his live