Remember That Nurse Thing on The View?

Over the last year, I’ve had the honor of working with Johnson & Johnson as a part of the team of bloggers called Social Influencers for Social Good. Simply put, I get to learn about and share all the good that J&J does globally, and man is it a lot. I know, you’re thinking “Cristie is working with a pharmaceutical company?” It is a bit strange, but the work that J&J does for the world far outweighs any skepticism I may have about prescription pills. So, here I am.

The beauty of J&J is that  you may never know about all the good they do, because they don’t advertise that side of themselves a lot. This company is truly committed to making the world better anyway they can and not just because it’s a good PR move. They don’t just write checks and press releases. Instead they form long-term partnerships with organizations around the world that are doing remarkable things to end poverty, health crises and much, much more.

I’ll share more about the UN Global Goals event I attended last Sunday where I met many of the amazing organizations Johnson & Johnson partners with around the world. (Like, Ellen from Tiwale.)

For today I wanted to share a bit about what happened a few weeks ago after The Great View Nurse Debacle of 2015. For those whose social media feeds weren’t inundated with nurse-gate backlash, here’s a quick summary: the women of The View acted a little like fools on the show the day after a Miss America contestant used the talent portion of the show to share a monologue about nursing. As you might imagine, people were pretty angry.

One great thing that happened was that Johnson & Johnson, in true Social Good form, used the occasion to do something bigger than just pull ads (they did that too).

As part of their overall social good strategy, Johnson & Johnson has an app called Donate a Photo. Those who follow me on Instagram and twitter have seen me post here before. Basically, you go through the app to use one of your own photos to “donate” to the feed and in turn J&J gives $1 to the charity you choose. A few months ago I posted a photo of our beach for which J&J donated a dollar to anti-bullying education through PFlAG. Simple right? We’re all constantly taking and sharing photos. So, why not use one a day to fund a worthy project?

Back to nurses. One day after The View madness, J&J announced it was suspending advertising from the show. Pretty good right? Well, apparently not enough for the folks at J&J because two days later they announced that they would use the money they were saving by not running ads and set up a system to move that money toward scholarships for nursing school, all through donate a photo . Now THAT’s social good!

Here are the statements they shared with their Facebook community:

Johnson & Johnson values and appreciates nurses and we respect the critical role they play in our healthcare system. We disagree with recent comments on daytime television about the nursing profession, and we have paused our advertising accordingly. We’re committed to raising the level of awareness about the skill and knowledge that the profession requires, and we send our thanks today and every day to the millions of nurses who touch the lives of patients and their families. ‪#‎NursesHeal ‪#‎NursesUnite

We value and appreciate nurses and their educational journey, and now you can show your appreciation just by sharing a photo! We wanted to put some of the money we saved by pausing our ads on a certain daytime program to good use, so for every eligible photo you post through our Donate A Photo app designating the Foundation of the National Student Nurses Association (FNSNA), Johnson & Johnson will donate $1 to provide scholarships for nursing students, up to $50,000. You can share one photo a day through the end of the year, so keep your photos coming! ‪#‎nursesunite

This is a big deal that they shared on the Facebook page, as traditionally their social good work goes unpublicized, except by us. So, I’m sharing the heck out of this one, because you can be part of it! Just  download the donate a photo and sharing a picture. See up there that they say you can do it every day for the rest of this year?  That’s a lot of potential new nurses, right? What are you waiting for? Can’t wait to see your nurse shots.