have your starbucks and drink it too

from the fabulous Chris_J on Flickr

It's common to hear global health advocates try to break down the billions of dollars needed to defeat the "big three" — HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis — in terms that are easy to grasp and to perceive as "reasonable".

One of the most popular is one that Columbia University's Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, a special adviser to UN Secretary-Generals Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon, has used on more than one occasion — reminding us all how much we spend on that morning cup of Joe.

"Three dollars per year from each of us. That's all we're talking about, a cup of coffee, once per year from a Starbucks."

Did someone tell Starbucks?

From November 27 through January 2, Starbucks, through its partnership with (RED), is donating 5 cents to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for each purchase of one of three "Exclusive" coffee drinks. On December 1, World AIDS Day (tomorrow), Starbucks is expanding the program by donating 5 cents for each "hand-crafted beverage".

(RED) has been relatively successful in raising funds for and awareness about the HIV/AIDS pandemic by asking very little of consumers. Buy something for yourself, feel good about it, appear socially or politically conscious, and throw a few dimes to cover the cost of AIDS medication for people in Africa. It's a win win all around, even if some folks think it's a scam.

With news of the global financial crisis confronting us every day, we're all looking around to see where we can eliminate costs and, judging by Starbucks' financial performance lately, that morning latte or afternoon Frappuccino might not be making the cut.

Will the new campaign help the coffee/lifestyle company to reverse that trend? Will the guilt of paying $3 for something you could make for a quarter back at home be alleviated knowing you will be helping to save lives? Can we have that cup of coffee and still triumph over the big 3? Can you have your Starbucks and drink it too?

delicious tags: environment

JetBlue has launched Jetting to Green, a new environmental initiative.

BP is promoting its Helios House eco-friendly gas station in Los Angeles through thegreencurve.com. I tried to take the test to assess where I am on the "green curve," but got defensive over poorly worded questions that don't take into consideration those of us who own cars but rarely drive it and (oops) haven't washed it for, um, years.

Patagonia encourages you to vote on November 4 and to do so based on how they score on the League of Conservation Voters National Environmental Scorecard.

del.icio.us tags 03.19.08

Blogs
Regina Schrambling writes, at The Los Angeles Times about the growing number of professional chefs who are blogging to build their personal brand, demonstrate (through traffic) their popularity to potential restaurant investors and sell product. I'm not thrilled with the folks who let their publicists write their blog posts -- you're missing the point, as far as I'm concerned -- but I love that Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin in New York makes the connection between the zines "he grew up reading in the age of underground punk rock" and his blog, Notes from the Kitchen.

CSR
Allison Mooney at PSFK writes about P&G and Unilever's dueling efforts to demonstrate who's more bad a** on the environmental front as they try to create loyal customers out of young consumers, who are increasingly demanding ethical behavior from the companies to whom they give their money. Sure, as Allison and others have pointed out, contradictions abound but I'm with her when she says, if "eco-minded consumers -- and the earth -- end up benefiting," who gives a toss?


One More Reason to Love Charlie Rose
I disagree with Sandra G, the first to comment on this TechCrunch post about Charlie Rose's commitment to his MacBook Air; Charlie is one of the sexiest men on television. There's a group of us who probably have had fantasies about sitting across from him at his big round table, lamenting the fact that he's so close, yet oh so far away (purrrrr). But a man who sacrifices his visage for his laptop? I'm with you, Charlie. If the house was on fire, my iBook would be the first thing I grabbed.

Search
Overture helps you to pick search terms for a keyword marketing campaign. Brian was the one that told me about it a while back, but I just got around to adding it to del.icio.us. Nothing like getting a peak into the mind of your customer.

del.icio.us tags: environment

The Weather Channel wants to know what you are doing to help save the planet. In the period leading up to Earth Day (April 22), the channel will collect user generated content (video, photo and text) to be shared both via the web site and on-air (via 901am).

Wal-Mart is working with CleanTech to gather solutions that will enable the company -- the world's largest retailer -- to achieve the ambitious goals of its company-wide sustainability initiative: 1) generate zero waste, 2) supplied by 100 percent renewable energy, and 3) sell products that sustain resources and the environment. This doesn't appear to be just a PR stunt -- engaging consumers to come up with feel good ideas. They are looking for folks who have real solutions that can be put into action and for which the company will pay (via Los Angeles Times).

kenneth cole is awear

Kenneth Cole, long time AIDS activist and corporate social responsibility pioneer, is launching his Awearness blog tomorrow, with the promise that he'll be posting once a week and bringing along some of his fabulous famous friends to post as well. I saw Cole speak when I was in grad school and he was touting his book, Footnotes: What You Stand For is More Important than What You Stand In and, based on that lecture, I am interested in hearing what he has to say. I'm hoping that the smart, biting humor from his ads translates and he avoids the death knell of the corporate legal department. But someone tell his web guy to add an RSS feed, or he's going to lose me. I don't go to blogs, they come to me, and I'm in fine company on that front.

Also on the CSR front but, alas, a few weeks late, The Economist asks, "Is the CSR craze a good thing for business and for society as a whole?" and comes to the conclusion that there's nothing wrong with the private sector trying to "do good." Nevertheless, the primary responsibility of a company is to make money and we shouldn't get so excited about CSR that we allow our government to forget that it is ultimately their responsibility to do good for its citizens.

Update: Awearness added an RSS feed.

del.icio.us tags 01.27.08

Some people do things just to be nice (not me). techPresident wraps up the year in political video. Consumers won't dismiss your company as using "green" as a marketing ploy if you're honest with them about what you're doing right -- and wrong. And a couple of things just for fun: Sesame Street and whiny white people.

Word of Mouth

It clearly says something about me that I presumed most people wrote online reviews to stick it to a company that's done them wrong. According to Keller Fay, it's just the opposite. The majority of folks who write online reviews have something nice to say and and want to share their good news to benefit other customers. They're also motivated by the desire to reward a company who makes them happy or to help that company get better at what they do.

Politics

techPresident has posted the best political videos of 2007 -- both "voter-generated" and videos from the candidates.

I love the SwiftKids

"My mother baked me this cookie."

Citizen Journalism
Download An Introduction to Citizen Media from Rising Voices for a non-techie guide to the "fundamentals of citizen media." Comes via PBS's MediaShift Idea Lab.

CSR

Consumers are growing skeptical of companies who claim to be "green," dismissing such rumblings as being mere "marketing gimmicks." According to Linda Passante at The Halo Effect, some of the companies that are doing the best work are making the least noise. Her words of wisdom? (And they are, indeed, very wise.)

"If you firmly believe that your company is committed to the environment, to workers’ rights, to fighting heart disease, or to even just excellent customer service, then you can’t just talk about it in some altruistic tone using vague corporate language. You need to show how you will do it, do it, and then provide details as to what you learned and how you’ll work to improve. Because, in the end, we all know that no one or no corporation is perfect, but consumers will respond to an authentic and transparent commitment."

Cool Stuff

Get ready to regress into your childhood: Sesame Workshop has launched the Sesame Street video player with hundreds of videos, searchable by keyword or character. The site is in beta. Will the "real" launch include the capacity to embed content? Please?


White Whine has a new "white person complaint" every week (“I really wish the Wings DVD’s would get here . . . I’m almost done with Mad About You.”) I'm sure they could come up with more . . .

another opportunity for the gap

There's an update this morning on last week's story about The Gap discovering that a manufacturer in India was using child labor to produce items for the chain's Gap Kids outlets.

The Guardian UK — the paper that "outed" the retail giant — reports today that The Gap is putting together plans to label all of its products "sweatshop free." The company will work with Global March Against Child Labour, an NGO dedicated to bringing an end to sweatshops, to determine all of the details.

The labels will go further than just proclaiming the fact that they were not made in sweatshops. According to the Guardian, consumers will be able to go online and use the information on the label to track precisely where their purchase was made. And, if it was discovered that the products actually WERE made by child laborers and/or in sweatshops, the company would be vulnerable to prosecution.

Will The Gap be adding computer kiosks to its stores to enable you to access this information BEFORE you make the purchase? Similar to restaurants that enable customers to access nutrition information from in-store kiosks? Again, as I said earlier this week, the company should be using this as a an opportunity to educate the public. Let them promote their dedication to human rights in the store. They could provide access to additional awareness-raising or educational information (both on the computer and to take away) at these kiosks. They could incorporate word of mouth tools that would enable customers to share information about sweatshop labor, the company's commitment, and YES, their merchandise right from these in-store computers.

"Check out this new jacket I am buying. According to the new kiosks in the store, it was made in a factory that adheres to global human rights standards. If you want to learn more about the issue of sweatshop labor, click here. If you want to learn more about The Gap's commitment to being sweatshop free, click here. If you want to learn more about the jacket and other new items in the store, click here."

Do it.

What do you think?

By the way, Marka Hansen, President of Gap North America, posted a letter to their customers on their web site.

a different solution for the gap

So, I read this morning on the BBC web site that Gap Inc. recently discovered that one of the items being sold at their Gap Kids stores in the U.S. and the UK was made by child slaves in India. As a result, they are pulling the item from stores and destroying all of the stock.

Of the kids who made the item, who were interviewed by the UK's Guardian newspaper as part of the investigation, one said that he had been sold by their parents to the factory owner four months ago to pay off a debt and another said that he had been beaten because he was apparently not working hard enough.

Horrific stuff.

Maybe I am missing something, but my very first reaction when I heard that they were going to destroy all of the items was this: they went through all of that to make those damn things and they're just going to be destroyed? Why not, instead, sell all of them and give every last dime of the worldwide sales (not just profit, but the entire purchase cost) to the kids who made them and to other programs in India that aim to improve the lives of children in poverty?

Set up a special display in the store, distribute information about the existence of slave child labor to educate customers and include information about the Gap's commitment to not working with suppliers who use child labor.

The things would sell out (I would buy them -- wouldn't you?). The material and effort that went into making them would not be wasted. More people would be educated about the existence of slave child labor and think harder about the next time they purchased an item of clothing. The company would communicate its commitment to the cause. And, most importantly, the kids' lives would change considerably.

Tell me if I am missing something. Am I overly simplifying this? Have they not already paid the vendor? That's a possibility. Would it be too prohibitively expensive to pay another vendor to produce the same item and then still do what I am suggesting? Could they then just donate the profits? I'm not suggesting they don't also conduct an investigation, change policies and seek out ways to ensure this does not happen again, but is there an opportunity for a little awareness -- and money -- raising in the middle of this fiasco?

del.icio.us tags 07.08.07

The Myth of the MySpace Generation - Research from Synovate suggests that young people (18-24) in Europe are not all that "techno-savvy" after all: 76 percent have never used MySpace, 90 percent have never blogged, 94 percent have never downloaded a ring tone for their cell phone.

But There's Hope - Facebook use is on the rise -- 89 percent in the past year -- and the new users are in the 12-17 and the 25-34 year old age group. So says ComScore, via TechCrunch.

Doing the Right Thing - Fast Company reported on the recent Geneva gathering for the UN Global Compact, including the release of three new studies that all suggest that corporate social responsibility is good for the bottom line. This may repulse those of you who think we should all do good because it's the right thing to do have my sympathy. I wish the world was ruled by justice, but, alas, it isn't. By the way, my former advisor at the Kennedy School, John Ruggie, designed and oversaw the Global Compact as Assistant Secretary General and chief adviser to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for strategic planning.

A Higher Power - Speaking of the good ol' days in Cambridge, I found this Men's Vogue article about another one of my Kennedy School profs, Samantha Power via sk*rt (a site that I mentioned in passing recently, but which I have grown to love). I'd like to say that I would like to be Power when I grow up, but I think it's too late. I enjoyed the article, but I am feeling devastatingly mediocre right about now -- and it's not because she gets to play basketball with George Clooney, I assure you.

Google (Rules the) Earth - Mashable documents Google's efforts -- some successful, some not so successful -- to take over the world (or the market) for search, advertising, video, blogging, mobile, start pages, communications, social networking, photo sharing and office suites.

del.icio.us tags 06.9.07

CoCreating CSR - Working Assets has been doing it for years -- asking its customers to tell them what they care about and then putting the funds behind the cause. It's a great idea (I unsuccessfully pitched a similar idea to an unnamed client a year or so ago) and something that American Express is currently undertaking through The Members Project. If you are a Cardmember, you've got eight days to weigh in with your idea for what "will do some good for our world." On July 3, an "expert panel" will pick the top 50 ideas and then throw it back out to members to vote on the best, which will receive up to $5 million in funding. Cause related marketing -- and corporate social responsibility -- should be in line with your customers' values (as well as your core brand values), so why not just ask them?

No Thank YouTube - YouTube is launching in China, but like the comments generated on the Mashable post sharing the news suggest, Western companies need to do more than provide translation -- and acknowledge that there is already a thriving world of homegrown web 2.0 sites that are doing fine without them, thank you very much.

Global Mobile - The world's top mobile web users live in the UK, the U.S., South Africa, India and Indonesia (via 901am).

If You Threw a Party and No One Came - MiGrito, the bilingual (Spanish/English) social network, has launched Tu Grito 2008 to allow presidential candidates to communicate with members. Unfortunately, so far, only Hillary Clinton has bothered to create a profile. Wait, I take that back. George Phillies has created a profile as well. But can someone tell me who Phillies is, please?

Putting Good Will in the Bank for a Rainy (Snowy) Day - Former CEO Dave Neeleman may be out of a job, but Jet Blue is still flying high. Despite the spanking the airline received earlier in the year when they left customers stranded on tarmacs in the name of weather delays, Consumer Reports says the company is still considered to be one of the best for customer service. As Spike at Brains on Fire points out, companies that start out with a good rep -- but encounter a little turbulence -- can pull themselves out of it if they continue to rely on their reputation for honesty and transparency and putting the customer first.

CSR 2.0

PSFK has a fascinating post today about the impact of Web 2.0 on corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is something that I have thought about before, but have not spent the time to think through as thoroughly as Mikkel Sorensen and Nicolai Peiterson of Actics.com.

Sorensen and Peiterson think that the "unprecedented levels of public involvement and co-creation in online processes" has led to CSR 2.0. Consumers are more informed and they have the technology at their fingertips to inform other consumers and they are "used to being heard."

In this environment, companies need to be prepared to listen to the conversation about their brand, as well as demonstrating they are listening.

pipe in

I'm getting increasingly annoyed by the conversation about Product (RED).

Where are the voices of the people from the global health community?

Those are the voices that I want to hear.

Tim?

Update: Although Anastasia's -- and Nedra's -- recommendations to take it a step futher and ask more of the people they reel in are right on.

It's the babble about people writing checks to the Global Fund that makes me want to go play in traffic.

sticking to what you know

Like Nedra at Spare Change — who posted on the topic today — I am late in coming to the conversation about Product (RED) and whether or not the HIV/AIDS campaign can be deemed a "success".

But my colleague, Rohit, tagged me to pipe in and so, I will. In his post, Rohit, explains that the issue for many of RED's critics is that the companies benefiting from their affiliation with the high-profile campaign should be writing checks directly to The Global Fund instead of sinking big bucks into marketing their RED products.

For my grad school thesis (yes, John, three years ago), I wrote a strategic plan for the Global Media AIDS Initiative, a project of the Kaiser Family Foundation that aims to leverage the power of the media to educate people and raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. The Initiative — and Kaiser's Entertainment Media Partnerships program — has leveraged hundreds of millions of dollars in donated air time from media companies around the world, including Kaiser's partnership with Viacom for the KNOW HIV/AIDS campaign.

In putting together the justification for the value that media companies brought to the table in the fight against HIV/AIDS, this same criticism arose -- why don't the companies just write a check?

Jen Kates, who is the Director of the Foundation's HIV Policy program and whom I interviewed for my thesis responded to the criticism in the following way:

“The value that we’re talking is in-kind value, not value that the company would ever be able to give to fight AIDS. If a media company said to me, ‘I could give you $100 million for care, treatment or prevention,’ I would say ‘Do that.’ But that’s not what they can do."

I have no idea where Jen would fall on the RED debate, but this is where I fall: it is not an either or situation. The companies that are participating in the campaign are not making the decision between spending money on an ad campaign or spending it on antiretrovirals.

The Global Business Coalition for AIDS, TB and Malaria works with companies to engage them in the fight against these three poverty-related diseases. The consistent message from the GBC is that their member companies should focus on utilizing their "core competencies" to contribute. So, in the case of the Global Media AIDS Initiative, media companies should use their power to reach a wide audience to help to educate, raise awareness and eliminate stigma — one of the greatest barriers to fighting AIDS. And, in the case of Product (RED), lifestyle companies -- companies that market "cool" products like phones and clothes and other things that we buy less out of necessity and more because we're trying to keep up with the Joneses -- should market the notion that giving a sh*t about HIV/AIDS is damn cool. Because, folks, is about more than the money being generated through individual donations. Campaigns like Product (RED) also help to create an environment in which voters support foreign aid packages that help provide funding for the Global Fund, as well as for PEPFAR, etc.

With that said, however, I heartily agree with Nedra that Product (RED) is not taking the campaign far enough. They could be engaging those consumers who — now that they are aware — could be mobilized to take further action. But I've kvetched about the campaign's missed opportunity in the past, so you'll have to click over and read what I said on the agency blog back in December.

Read what others have to say on the topic. Josh Spear, AdRants, Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog, Marketing Profs and AdAge are just some of the many who have shared their thoughts.

Anyone else I should read? What do YOU think?

Update: Now I'm annoyed. Folks, the money being spent on the marketing campaigns would not alternatively be spent on drugs, condoms and testing. It would be spend on a marketing campaign that promoted products — minus the RED.

del.icio.us tags 02.04.07

Social Networks

I came across Mashable yesterday and life is a little bit better than it was before. It's a blog dedicated to covering social networks, which are fascinating to me as they seem to grow more and more vertical. It's like porn. With social networks, you can get VERY VERY specific about the things that get you off. They have the potential to be huge assets in reaching niche audiences, but so many marketers have already crashed and burned trying to do it right.

Pete Cashmore at Mashable wrote about four social networks for the LGBT crowd -- two of which have not yet launched (Social Butter and Olivia.com). GLEE.com is a social and professional network from the folks behind MiGente and Black Planet. But the really cool one is Our Chart, which was started by three of the actresses from The L Word. Our Chart will prove once and for all that, yes, all lesbians know each other.

I mentioned Takkle yesterday, but there are a few other social networks vying for the love of sports fans. Mashable reports that Sports Illustrated/Time — which also owns Takkle — just bought Fan Nation for about $20 million, despite the fact that the site barely has any members (according to Mashable). There's also Sportsmates and iSporty, among others. It feels like 1997, folks.

I was excited to find MyDesignIn -- a social network for home remodelers -- but disappointed because, as it's in Beta, it's tough to know what it's really going to be able to do.

Research

Pew Center for the People and the Press released a report earlier this month, a "portrait" of "Generation Next," -- Americans between the ages of 18 and 25. More than the generation that preceded them, they identify as Democrats and have socially liberal views on interracial marriage (how 1975), homosexuality and immigration. On that last point, it's encouraging to know -- that in an era of Lou Dobbs and Minutemen Project -- more young people than ever before think that the growing number of immigrants is a positive for the country. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that many of them, or their parents, are immigrants themselves.

Pew Internet & American Life Project conducted a survey in December to assess how pervasive tagging had become among Internet users: 28 percent have and 7 percent do so on a daily basis.

Here are some additional details:

• women and men are just as likely to be taggers
• most taggers are under the age of 40
• taggers are more likely to have a broadband connection than dial up
• people of color are more likely than whites to tag
• higher education and higher income increase the likelihood of tagging as well

A New Tool

We're always looking for more effective ways to measure the influence of a web site or blog. It's time consuming and, more often than not, results -- even those generated by the same search tool -- are inconsistent. ToolURL at least makes things easier by bringing everything together in one place: Bloglines, Technorati, del.icio.us, Alexa, Ultrends and more.

You're Being Watched

dotherightthing.com is Digg for folks -- like me -- who are invested in corporate social responsibility. It has great potential, but as with all social media, it depends on the quantity and the quality of the participants. I'll be watching.