Communications pro Cindy
Gallop describes herself as the Michael Bay [Hollywood director] of
business. “I like to blow shit up,” she explains.
Gallop, founder and former chairman of advertising agency BBH New
York, has been in the communications business for 30 years. In recent
years, she founded two startups based on the same business model:
“Shared values, plus shared action, equals shared profit [both
financial and social].”
MakeLoveNotPorn is her vision to “redefine the future of sex.” The
website promotes “real-world sex,” which Gallop says has become
distorted due to the widespread availability of pornographic material.
Users can upload and download homemade sex videos to
MakeLoveNotPorn.tv, which launched in August 2012, and receive
royalties. “You know those ads that say you can make $2,000 working
from home? Well, now you can,” Gallop says.
The site has about 65,000 registered members and she expects it to break even this year.
Gallop’s other startup venture is IfWeRanTheWorld.
Launched in 2010, it works as a co-action marketing platform where
people and brands can take part in “micro-actions” together to benefit
both themselves and society.
“There is too much talk in the world and not enough doing; this is where you walk the talk,” Gallop explains.
She firmly believes CSR can help businesses make money, rather than
serving as simply a PR tool. An example is Levi’s Ready to Work campaign
to re-vitalize the town of Braddock, PA, which partnered with the
IfWeRanTheWorld startup.
“It’s a very forward-thinking venture,” she says. “The world is
catching up to me, which is a relief as I need it to in order to make
money out of it.”
Gallop consults and has built a reputation as a tour de force on the
public-speaking circuit. Her explicit TED talk, launching
MakeLoveNotPorn in 2009, went viral. More recently, her SXSW session
attracted a huge audience, despite a clash with Al Gore’s session.
Her life and work has received a huge amount of press coverage,
without any media outreach. “I’m all about communication through
demonstration; I don’t talk, I do,” she says.
Gallop, who works from her Shanghai nightclub-style apartment in New
York City’s Chelsea believes, “There is no outside of work. I am living
what I work and working what I live,” she says.
