{"id":63,"date":"2011-05-24T14:42:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T21:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/?p=63"},"modified":"2011-06-01T07:59:50","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T14:59:50","slug":"co-opting-public-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/2011\/05\/co-opting-public-value.html","title":{"rendered":"Co-Opting Public Value"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A billboard for Mozilla, currently up in San Francisco.<\/p><\/div>\n

San Francisco is big on non-profit alternatives. I know this because we\u2019ve done some asking around (and looking at other research) as we attempt a brand realignment on our TIX Bay Area <\/a>discounted ticketing service. It turns out that, all other things being equal (a big caveat), a good percentage of Bay Area consumers will opt for a socially-helpful version of a service over a straight-up corporate one. As such, we will be touting the fact that we\u2019re the only non-profit ticketing vendor in the Bay Area\u2026we\u2019ll see if it works, because that pesky \u201call other things being equal\u201d bit is hard when the other thing is well-funded, well-oiled, all-it-does-is-this-stuff-all-day-long Goldstar. But we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I\u2019ve got public value arguments on the brain because of those discussions, so imagine my surprise when I was driving around San Francisco and saw an entire ad campaign touting public value\u2014for a web browser.<\/p>\n

Mozilla<\/a>, as you may or may not know, is a nonprofit company that develops open-source products, including the well-respected Firefox internet browser. And they\u2019ve apparently been reading the same stuff we\u2019ve been reading, because their entire campaign is about their \u201cgoodness\u201d in the face of the super-corporate alternatives. Taglines include:<\/p>\n