Kiss Off Cause Marketing

Right now DNA II, a custom art company believe it or not, would like you to kiss off.

When you do they’ll make a donation to the MAC Aids Fund; enough to purchase 1000 condoms for distribution in India or 14 HIV test kits in Haiti.

Here’s how it works. You purchase one of DNA II’s KISS Portraits online, which start at $290 USD for a 51cm X 51cm (20”x20”) canvas print. They send you a tube of MAC Viva Glam lipstick and a bunch of KISS image sheets. You return the sheet you prefer and a few weeks later you get a portrait of your lips on a canvas suitable for hanging in the colors you specified.

DNA II, which operates out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and sells worldwide, started by selling portraits of your DNA. They send you a cheek swab they turn into a colorized version of the lines biologists use to designate your DNA. They also sell a fingerprint…um… print that they blow-up from your... er... fingerprints.

Baked into the DNA of the company's corporate culture is corporate giving. Corporately they give to AIDS, Alzheimer’s and cancer research and to a handful of other causes. They were even a sponsor of the Google X Prize Gala.

I like the way they’ve identified the donation amount with the products that will be purchased with the donation, ie condoms and HIV test kits. It makes the donation more concrete.

But there are good reasons to also identify the actual dollar amount being donated: in the aggregate it’s easier to describe and understand a $50,000 total donation than a 600,000 total condom donation (or whatever the actual amount is).

I also admire the way they partnered with MAC twice; as providers of the Viva Glam lipstick and with the MAC Aids Fund. It’s a well-crafted cause promotion from a polished operator. (Do visit their website to see an outfit that really gets e-commerce.)

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