Kelly Ripa is Atop the Celebrity Cause Marketing Heap

You can’t swing a corded mouse online without running into the daytime double-threat actress/talk show host Kelly Ripa and her work on behalf of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

I get, it seems like, weekly email notices from Electrolux telling me to visit the ‘Lemonade Stands,’ of OCRF supporters. The Lemonade Stands are the charity part of a broader Kelly Ripa-powered promotion for Electrolux curiously called ‘Kelly Confidential.’

The Stands represent an intriguing variation on virtual paper icons for MDA that I’ve profiled before. To support the stands you’re asked to donate amounts from $1 (the default) to $50. The donations are processed through Paypal.

When you open a stand, Electrolux will donate the first $1. There's also a win a refrigerator contest element when you open a stand. Electrolux will donate up to a total maximum of $15,000 for the lemonade campaign. That is, just the first 15,000 stands get the $1 donation. Electrolux’s total pledge to OCRF is $500,000.

The campaign is also heavily promoted on Facebook and Twitter. So had I ever friended the campaign in either of those social media outlets, no doubt I‘d be seeing little ads for the Lemonade Stands there, too.

The bright and appealing Ripa can also be seen with her husband and former daytime TV costar Mark Consuelo s on Super Saturday Live on QVC, August 1, 2009. A portion of the sales that day benefit the OCRF.

While there is plenty of celebrity cause marketing around, in fairly quick order Kelly Ripa has ascended to the top of the heap. No doubt the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund is glad of that.

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