Cast Your Vote For Cause Marketing at Regal Cinemas

Americans have a big polarizing vote coming up soon and pundits have been weighing in with their opinions, informed and not. Much depends on what the nation’s voters pick; will they go for red or blue?

Frozen fruit drinks, that is.

Starting today at polling locations at 520 Regal Movie theaters in 37 states, when you buy a medium or large cherry frozen fruit drink, the company will make a $0.50 donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Buy a blue or any other color of frozen fruit drinks and Regal will donate $0.50 to Boys and Girls Club of America. The total donation to both causes is capped at $600,000. The promotion runs from Wednesday, August 1, 2012 to Friday, August 31, 2012. Weekly vote totals will be tracked on Regal’s Facebook site.

Regular readers know that I generally dislike these kinds of competitions that pit charity against charity. Most Americans like to think that what Peter Drucker used to call the 'Social Sector' is just one big happy family working to make the world a better place. And even if that’s not exactly true, it is the case that we’re all better off when respectable and effective charities like St. Jude and Boys and Girls Clubs are fulfilling their missions and have the resources to do so.

So pitting them against one another typically strikes me as self-defeating for the sponsor, even in the case of high-falutin’ campaigns like Pepsi Refresh or American Express Member’s Projects.

But I like this promotion, called the Regal Straw Vote, because it injects a healthy dose of levity into two things that are too often deadly earnest; politics and charity fundraising.

Bravo, Regal.

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