The use of charity in building a brand is especially becoming commonly used in the fashion business. Puma entered for instance into cooperation with “United for Africa” in 2006, and the shoe brand Clark’s has started the project “Sole of Africa”. Body Shop has launched a perfume in the fight against Aids under the slogan “Spray to change attitudes”. The clothes store chain, Top Shop, has sold the bottled water “Charity Water” in their shops, and Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) launched the campaign “Fashion Against Aids” earlier this month. The same month, Gucci and Madonna arranged a charity ball for UNICEF and “Raising Malawi”. Further, the Danish designer Malene Birger and the Norwegian designer Maggie Wonka, has recently designed one clothes collection each for UNICEF.
UNICEF has been using celebrities for a long time to create publicity around its projects. The first goodwill ambassador, the actor Danny Kaye, was pointed out in 1954. Now the organization is working with ambassadors all over the world, and it has become common that celebrities travel to Africa to front various campaigns, accompanied with the world press.
Benetton has since its early days highlighted a range of society problems in its commercial campaigns. Now, the company will offer poor people from Senegal the opportunity to establish their own business by providing micro credit. The campaign will last for three months.
Since Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, micro credit has been in the wind. The fact that companies such as Benetton is using a campaign fronting micro credit, is an excellent way of getting publicity. It is hard to say whether or not this is the ideal way of showing responsibility to the society. The world has at least most certainly opened its eyes for Africa’s potential in terms of marketing.
The article is based on information from www.dn.no