Friends for Change is lowkey indirectly responsible for me meeting my best friend. My school was having a talent show and another friend and I were going to sing Make A Wave together (I was Demi and she was Joe haha). She got the date of the audition wrong so I was there all alone and ended up sitting by a girl who was also scared to go alone. We literally decided then and there to audition together and I called my mom to have her burn a CD with the one song the both of us knew and bring it ASAP. We ended up doing Dance Me If You Can from Cheetah Girls 3 and my lord did we suck absolute balls, but we're still best friends 14 years on!
@@hbmento8102 This just reminded me that we both had clothes from the Shake It Up collection 😭 not what we wore for the talent show (just plain red tops and black pants and I think there may have been cheetah print somewhere lol) but yeah I loved that faux vest shirt with my colorful skinny pants and my knee high pink plaid hightop Airwalks 😭 so violently 2010s
Disney friends for change really had me thinking I saved the world. I remember buying a "how to make jewelry from recycled items" book at the book fair and selling bracelets and bottle cap necklaces at lunch and recess
I find it odd that the adult actors are almost never a part of the Disney Channel brand despite being consistently the funniest characters on their respective shows.
@@marcusblackwell2372 that show was trash I’m glad I was mature enough to not keep watching Disney at that point lmao. That show and the others at the time are cringy af
I think they wanted to push the whole "kids telling you what to do" since there were so many sources of adults telling kids what were right or wrong so Disney thought it would appeal to kids more to have other kids they looked up to talk to them. I think it was a good approach.
Growing up in a black household while trying to put Friends For Change tactics into action be like: Teenage me: Let me adjust the thermostat to help the save planet! Black Mom: Get your hands off of that knob! You don't pay the bills in the house! Teenage me: *cuts the T.V. off because my dad is sleeping in his chair Black Dad: (instantly wakes up) TURN THAT T.V. BACK ON! Teenage me: But you were asleep and saving electricity can help the planet! Black Dad: TURN IT BACK ON OR YOU'LL BE THE ONE NEEDING SOME SAVING! Yeah, needless to say I left 'saving the world' to other Disney viewers at the time...
What’s crazier is that Friends For Change represents a period of innocence and hope, where the widespread belief was that “if we all work together we can stop climate change and save our planet.” We all believed it and committed to it. But today that hope is completely dead in the face of the fact that in reality, billion and trillion dollar companies are solely responsible for all of the damages to our climate and planet, and the very hope of “if we work together we can save the planet” was ITSELF a clever and successful marketing ploy by those same corporations to shift the blame away from themselves and towards regular people. Now it is clear that there is nothing any of us can to to save the planet and climate. Despite our best efforts, the fossil fuel companies were successful in stopping the actions necessary to actually save the planet, and we’re all certainly going to suffer in an increasingly uninhabitable planet. I desperately wish and long for the days of “Send It On.” 2009 feels like it was the hopeful 60s era to todays 70s cynical despondency.
Pass the Plate was something else, there was this one guy from Brazil who just added slices of banana to some rice and beans and called it a secret recipe passed down 😂
Omg, i remember that. I’m from brazil and i need to say that i founded very representative Back Then because i used to eat the banana with rice and beans.
Growing up in a west African household, we do the same, putting bananas in rice. I was surprised to see someone not in direct relation to the continent do the same thing 😭
Send It On impacted the trajectory of my life in irreversible ways. It still plays in my head regularly, that really was my We Are The World. A truly iconic collaboration.
You pointing out how the adults from the shows like Phil Lewis and Billy Ray Cyrus weren't involved in this reminded me of just how little the adults were involved in the Disney Channel brand outside of the shows. Like, I remember watching a compilation of all of the Wand IDs, and, typically, the actors playing the adults were the only main cast members of any given show not to have any (i.e.: Selena Gomez, David Henrie, Jake T. Austin, Jennifer Stone, and even Gregg Sulkin had Wand IDs for Wizards of Waverly Place, but Maria Canals Barrera and David DeLuise never did). The only exception is Ben Savage got to do one for Girl Meets World, presumably because he was a big draw to the show. Edit: Also, Jason Earles had several Wand IDs for Hannah Montana, but he was an adult playing a teenager, so it doesn't really count.
Disney really knew how to keep kids interested even when shows weren’t on cus all these little programs like circle of stars, pass the plate etc really had me invested as a kids. ESPECIALLY Demi Selena Miley and Jonás brothers in the send it on song. Do kids watching Disney channel even get these kind of things anymore? Like who are the new Disney channel stars?? Other than olivia rodrigo who left. Also a dream is a wish your heart makes??? them Disney kids slayed that
You should do a video about those weird fake stories with a life lesson that played between shows in the mid-late 2000s. I don't remember what they were called though.
fun fact! olavo cavalheiro was the troy equivalent of high school musical brazilian version. idk how it was in the rest of the latam but here they went through some glee project situation and he won the protag role when he was 17, being the youngest finalist. he also had a role in the as the bell rings brazilian version
These little PSA initiatives (Friends for Change, Big Help, Stop Bullying Speak Up) we’re giving the right messages but Disney was the only one trying to bring their audience in with the Games miniseries they did. Ain’t no 12 year old going to remember to do all those stuff but they will surely enjoy watching all their favorite stars in a competition show having fun.
I genuinely remembered the whole Friends for Change thing. My sister and I would see it air and we would just watch it since it's just there. It did lowkey convince me to do "my part" in saving the planet. I remember begging my parents to use Earth-friendly products and we recycled all the time, even turning off the TV when no one is watching. I even remembered in elementary school back in 5th grade, they "somehow" convinced us and made it important for us to save the Earth. Once it was the final week of school, we just recycled all of our books and paper supplies. We were like "We saved like 17 trees!". I just die laughing thinking about it because it's so funny to me now. Man, they should really bring this back. The closest thing to a "Friends for Change" is Mr. Beast since he did clean up the ocean, beaches, and planted trees. He isn't even our friend... But hey, I'm not saying it's a bad thing but it's something!
I remember the friends for change era was also the time when actors from disney channel shows exclusive to certain regions just started appearing in bumpers in America. They were talking about their foreign cultures and their own local twists on daily activities. I don't recall their shows ever being aired in America, but it was still interesting to hear from them.
I’m pretty sure their shows never made it over. Disney Channel was always strict as far as not bringing over live-action programming that was produced for their overseas offshoots. Even in stuff like the Games, Disney didn’t acknowledge a foreign show that the actor was from; they were just a representative of Disney Channel (insert country).
I think there's no denying all these campaigns actually impacted a lot of Gen z into caring and worrying for the state of the world. Sure they were cheesy, and maybe lied about numbers, but they were real to so many of us
I was 13-14 when Send It On was released. I’m a Zillenial. It felt then like there was hope, that if we all worked together we could save the planet. But now, knowing that billion dollar companies are solely responsible for the climate damage and the successful blockage of meaningful climate action just makes me cynical, depressed and resigned. I so want to go back to those hopeful days when “Send It On” made me feel hopeful and magical.
@ 24:14 - i don't think the fact theyre wearing the same clothes is a red flag. the clothes theyre wearing are 100% costumes put together by designers to pull together the friends for change aesthetic of nature, being grounded, real people, etc. And it isnt unlikely that they would be put in those same costumes to shoot updated statistics for A) to maintain the aesthetic design of the campaign and B) to keep it consistent with previous ads in the campaign. (i work in theatre/entertainment)
i do think they made up/inflated stats however bc there's no way they can make any concrete claims of changes they caused just bc a bunch of kids went online and said they would do it 💀plus it's not like anyone was gonna fact check them on any of this
You're right. However, i think this is still the case bcuz in the special they said that after they were done shooting they were gonna plant the plants outside, yet the plants are still there in those promos. Makes me think that they ended up filming them in the same day
You mentioning all the songs made for this campaign makes me want a full video on Disney Channel music outside of the shows; specifically 2 main things. 1, all the times they brought their stars together to sing (Disney Channel Circle of Stars, Legendary, etc.) and 2, Disney Mania. Even a video on Radio Disney would be cool. As always, fantastic video. I truly loved watching this
The thing with environmental changes is that we know that the only way things can change is if the large corporations are the ones who make changes. So if they rebooted Friends for Change, I feel like it would just get a lot of flak.
I remember seeing the Friends For Change special with all of those stars! Like you said it was just under 30 stars in one place! It truly felt like the We Are The World for Disney at the time. Avengers: Endgame < Friends For Change
You had me cracking up when you said “Nick left Miley for Selena, then left Selena for Miley, then left her for Selena” cus I literally said that to myself before. Like he really was going back and forth lmaoo 😂
I remember one of these spots is what ironically made me realize I wasn’t into Disney channel anymore. It was one of the later stage ones after most of the big shows ended. Debby Ryan was the only one I knew the name of and she felt so out of place to me because I still associated her with that previous wave of actors.
Friends for change was an interesting concept, but I never really did anything in regards to the environment. Ultimately, it really didn’t have a big impact towards me.
Fun fact: Send It On probably never would have happened if Disney couldn’t get Miley to record the song and film the music video thanks to her schedule being jam packed back then in 2009
2009 what a time on Disney channel. The last years of the 00’s, The High School Musical era had just wrapped up and the 2010’s Disney Channel stars like dove Cameron, zendaya, Bridget Mendler or Ross lynch weren’t around.
i LOVED this video mr. nostalgia. long form content is always my fav but you dug up some memories i didn’t even realize i had! i was deeply invested in this from start to finish & would love to see you keep trying new things!!! u dropped this, king 👑😌🤲
Another amazing video as always! I would love to see you talk about other Kid Network Charities/Programs like Nickelodeon's Big Help and Cartoon Network Stop Bullying Speak Up
Disney Channel’s involvement of adult actors in non-show activities is very inconsistent. They did Express Yourself (at least Craig and Lise of Phil of the Future), but didn’t do Circle of Stars until Kevin and Leigh-Allyn in Do You Wanna Build A Snowman. Their representation at the Disney Channel Games boils down to Phill and Brian as the commentators while the only player who qualifies might’ve been Shin Koyamada from Wendy Wu. Girl Meets World era Ben Savage got a Wand ID, and Raven’s Home has been led very strongly by Raven. She and Anneliese even did a Celebrity Family Feud episode with Coop and Cami’s Rebecca Metz, Just Roll With It’s Suzi Barrett, and, in unintended animation representation, Caroline Rhea from Sydney to the Max (and Phineas and Ferb). Kim Possible’s Gary Cole happened to be on the Mixed-ish team they were facing. Meanwhile Dan and Swampy just seem to be in a whole other league (I think their “We’re Gonna Do It Again” music video falls in line l)
Very inconsistent indeed. Disney XD rarely promote their adult actors at all on their sitcoms. Hal Sparks never really appears in Lab Rats’ promotional material, for example, and Geno Segers is very inconsistent with Pair of Kings. Only Jason Earles and the Iron Weasel actors were front-and-center. XD stopped giving any adult actors anything other then guest stars after Lab Rats. Mary Birdsong never made it past guest star status on Crash & Bernstein, nor did Carlos Lacamara on Mighty Med. None of the adult actors on Kirby Buckets ever got to be a main star, with Stephen Kearin in particular being a glaring omission by the end of the show’s run. Gamer’s Guide had Lauren Pritchard most notably. Fun fact: Suzi Barrett was also the mom on Kirby Buckets.
part of me is jazzed that a big network encouraged eco-friendly behavior in kids (and i remember watching these when they aired), in a way that is accessible and approachable. but the other part of me knows the disney corporation is a huge contributor to global emissions, pollution, waste etc that amounts to way more than a handful of kids turning the lights off when they leave a room. and if they really wanted to do something good they'd make fundamental changes in their company. good memories but so frustrating now as an adult.
It feels like Send It On was a bit of hope telling us “if we all work together we can save the planet.” but now, knowing that companies like Disney were and are directly and actively responsible for climate damage, in addition to the fact that we’re past the point of no return towards an uninhabitable hellscape and because of these companies successfully blocking any actually beneficial action, means that there was never going to be any chance to save the planet. It honestly just depresses me to the point where I long to go back to those days where you could believe that your actions to have a positive impact on the world.
i remember this and the only thing i cared about was that the jonas brothers, demi, miley and selena came together to sing a song. my values as a teen were VERY important clearly.
Even if every single kid that watched the Friends for Change bits pitched in to make environmentally friendly changes in their lives, it still wouldn't offset all of Disney's carbon emissions. It wouldn't even make a dent.
5 minutes in, this just reminded me that THIS is the reason I always think of Demi Lovato when I'm taking long showers. I believe in one of these things she mentioned a 5 minute shower? Or 10, idk but I was like, not me can't relate. Til this day I'm always like "I'm sorry Demi" everytime I take long showers but I completely forgot Friends for Change was the reason in the first place😭
I Remember When I Saw Those Commercials, I Thought To Myself “Why Didn’t They Just Film Outside?” And Years Later My Questions Have Yet To Be Answered! 🌸😹
my mom is a bit of an environmentalist, so everything they told me to do in friend's for change, I was already doing regularly. I thought it was common sense so I found friends for change to be a little goofy and redundant. watching all my favorite disney stars get together was still quite magical though.
Omg I remember the pass the plate segment back n the day I loved it🤣 I remember this one where this guy said it was a secret recipe when it was just plain old beans and rice 😭😭
The funny thing is that i remembered the 2009 and 2010 campaigns, but i had no idea about the 2011 games campaign and everything afterwards. (I had liked Disney during 2009, 2010 and early 2011, and i got back in 2012, but 2013 is when i fell off. I had been more of a Nick or CN kid in my youth)
I only remember the last few years of friends for change tbh, I mostly remember the commercials they aired of “that time I..” and Disney 365. also the Bella Thorne dyslexia one and a Zendaya one lmfao. I would def want to see another video similar to this covering other things they aired between shows
Im from south america and friends for a change had its own version here (amigos por el mundo) they also had an anthem with just the latin america stars (that where like... 6) and it was SO GOOD (its called "la voz" {the voice}) they always had these crossovers but it was still pretty dope tho i honestly dont remember anything about pledging or anything (maybe in south america all that stuff was removed? like the website and such)
Not related to friends for change but watching those commercials just unearthed a hidden memory for me of an April fools commercial dealing with putting something in someone else’s shampoo and I remember doing it and then getting my ass beat by my mom because of it
Bro threw me so hard when he said “I honestly don’t care about the cause one way or another” brother it’s our earth, not saying the special was good but still😂
I remember once they stopped all shows on the channel for like 4 hours and told kids who went to that channel to go outside and play for the cause and it was thunderstorming outside….
That comment they made about the computer games...I was an only child at the time. The alternatives they are suggesting require two or more people. One of my parents was in prison and one of my parents worked at the time. I was often home alone. No wonder I geared towards video games.
18:54 legally Blondes was a terrible movie, but that's to be expected when disney tries to make their own Legally Blonde, but those girls are iconic. Imagine being picked from a live studio audience so you can act on a tv show.
i have NO ideia if its this thing come to Brazil but i remember a time when there[s something like that called Disney Cidadania with the slogan ``you can more!`` and some comercials with disney princess talking about girl power bro i remeber just because it plays Hall of Fame on the backgroud
And upon rewind, don’t think I didn’t notice the bbbmybff. Waiting on the vid that shows the true fire that song x dreams are made of crossover is 🙌🏾👍🏾
My aunt constantly leaves faucets running and actually gets upset when we turn the kitchen light off at night because she doesn't want roaches coming out in the dark even though they'll come out in the light anyway. Its So annoying.
Never thought I'd see the day a well made retrospective for FFC would get made. Mostly cause i completely forgot about it myself until I read the title when this came on my recommended lol. But yeah, huge blast from the past, was going "oh hey, I member him/her, wonder how they're doing" the whole time. And Send It On was indeed an earworm. Kinda wild how much this kind of "save the environment" stuff was pushed on kids networks and now it feels like ancient history when it wasn't even that long ago looking at dates. Good times though.
Back then, we hadn’t gone past the point of no return for our carbon emissions and plastic usage, and we all believed that we as individuals could prevent it. Now we know too full well that the corporations did most of the damage and successfully blocked any action that would work and that those same corps were behind these initiatives to make us think climate change was our fault. Because we couldn’t stop those corps from doing the damage, we flew past the carbon emissions limit and we now have so much plastic in our environment that it is literally in everything around us and even in the food we eat. That’s why it feels like ancient history, because compared to the crushing knowledge we know now, those times were so drastically different
When I was a kid I was learning English from Disney with the help of the subtitles. However the ads did not have subtitles so all this time I thought it was a random collab
surprisingly at my first ft job many people would turn the faucet on and walk away to do 50 other things and then come back. it would drive me crazy. I became the water police at work and would be on their ass about it everytime until it slowly stopped
I remember having full on conspiracy sessions about who was paired with who when they sang in couples during this song!!! ‘Omg kevin and selena?????? No way’
I'm 25 and it's like although I remember most of this stuff there's other stuff where you'll go "does anyone remember...?" and I'll be like "nah dawg, do you remember how big Hit Me Baby One More Time was?"
