Background: Tommy McAnairey’s mission is to warn people about the dangers of carbon monoxide through the medium of traditional Irish ballad. He happens to be a canary – which is no coincidence, because canaries used to work in coalmines detecting the lethal gas, and Tommy lost many of his ancestors that way. So you could say he has a personal interest in the issue.
This Campaign: In September 2015 Tommy launched his second campaign: to ‘go all out’ for Carbon Monoxide Awareness Week. So he did what any crusading singer-songwriter with a message to spread would do: he released a charity single!
From an experiential point of view, Tommy’s campaign was multi-faceted. He promoted the single in every conceivable way. He sent it directly to radio DJs (and received radio airplay); he had a presence in Golden Discs record store; he was interviewed by, and appeared on the cover of, Hot Press magazine; he appeared on the Wall of Fame in Temple Bar (his stage rider even appeared inside); and a cover version of his single was performed by an up-and-coming trad band in O’Donoghue’s pub in Dublin. Tommy also used more conventional advertising channels to spread the word, such as TV, radio and press. All the while, Tommy took to Twitter, quipping and commenting as his single climbed the iTunes download charts, eventually making it to number 8 in the Irish charts and number 1 in the singer-songwriter category.
