2016 hasn’t been a very good year. It’s a sentiment uttered so many times this year that to repeat it once more inches toward banality.
But the facts remain: We lost musical icons like Prince, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen. Shootings, war, division infected every sector of the world. Millennials continue to idolize Mark Zuckerberg for some reason. This year was tough.
But thanks to some British creatives currently living in Berlin, we can now commemorate (commiserate?) this Year of Bad with their Badvent calendar. Not only will it help you remember the worst moments of the year, but also a chance to fight the bad, and give back to those in need.
The Badvent calendar is simple: Like an Advent calendar, but instead of rewarding you with chocolates, gives you Tumblr posts reminding you of the (terrible) year that was. Though you might not be so eager to slip into the darkness, as we mentioned, it’s for a good cause: Following the end of each post, you’re asked to donate to EducAid Sierra Leone, which provides free secondary education to those living in Sierra Leone.
“Like typical Brits we were having a really good moan while having a cup of tea the morning just after Donald Trump won the election,” Badvent founders Robert Hall and Tim Cook wrote AdWeek in an email. “We were both pretty shocked about the result, just like we were after Brexit. Coincidentally, the result came just a day after Leonard Cohen’s death—and we both were like: ‘Hang on a minute, is 2016 the sh*ttest year ever?’ ”
So they researched the worst of 2016, including celebrity deaths, natural disasters, and “motherf*cking Harambe” as they label it. Their goal is to raise 1,000 pounds by Christmas.
“Well we are really hoping to end 2016 on a high and raise 1,000 pounds by Christmas day, so that we can give the kids of Sierra Leone a present they’ll never forget,” they wrote. “If we can raise more than that figure, maybe we’ll have to rethink how bad 2016 actually was.”
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