Cause Marketing

Should breast cancer awareness ever be more about the breast than it is the cancer? I wonder when I see ads like the one at the left by Estee Lauder. Over the last few years there’s been a general sexualizing of the disease that troubles me. Don’t get me wrong. Part of the early genius of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and her sister breast cancer charities was the recognition that breast cancer was different for women than, say, lung cancer, even if a cancer in the breast might be only a few centimeters away from a cancer in the lung. One reason why Komen et al acquired so much momentum is because there’s a personalness to breast cancer that also touches things like feminine sexuality. Survivors fight more than just the disease. Even as a clueless man I get that. Breast cancer affects a women’s sense of self in ways that other diseases, say, heart disease—which kills twice as many women in the United States as breast cancer—do not. But I don’t think the cause is well-served by ads like t...

There’s many ways to activate cause marketing, but the most common way… and usually the least expensive… is with public relations. And one story that you must master when 'efforting' women’s magazines is a pretty standard transactional cause marketing pitch; buy our thing and a portion of the proceeds benefits this fine cause. Get the details right and it’ll probably get you coverage. But it’s the classic case of good news/bad news. The good news is you’ve got a pretty good chance at getting coverage in women’s magazines like Ladies Home Journal , O, the Oprah Magazine , Allure , Elle , Vogue , Lucky , Shape , Town and Country , and Self . The Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database has cause marketing stories from all of these women’s magazines and more. The bad news, you’ll almost certainly have to share the coverage with other cause marketing efforts which may be thematically similar to yours, as in the story at the left from the August 2011 Redbook . Magazine editors love, lov...

It has been my pleasure (and, occasionally, my displeasure) to work with celebrities in cause campaigns over the years. Shannon Miller , the most decorated US female gymnast ever, told me scary stalker stories on a long drive together on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson was not quite lucid the night I escorted him through a charity cocktail party. I once put $5,000 on my credit card to pay for a dinner for 15 sponsor reps, Grammy-winner Amy Grant , and me. I walked into Kenny Loggins ’ dressing room one time when he had his hair up in curlers. One night when I was sitting with actor-singer John Schneider he held forth ( at length! ) on the topic of females calling themselves ‘actresses’ rather than ‘actors.’ In short, I’ve had a certain amount of experience with celebrities, especially the lower wattage variety. Which is why I’m a little surprised by the way the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline threw John McEnroe under the bus with this ad that...