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Buckets for the Cure: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Like most people, when I first saw that Komen for the Cure had partnered with KFC to create Buckets for the Cure, I thought it was a joke.  And then I sort of wanted to throw up in my mouth a little.  (To figure out your own reaction, watch this 15 second video below).

But then I started feeling a bit of guilt.  Was I just being an elitist snob?  A brand purist?  If KFC is prepared to give the single largest donation to Komen in history (they’ve already pledged more than $2.5 million at the time of this posting), why was I being such a jerk about it?

When I started looking for validation online, I discovered a heap of reactions that I’ve rounded up below.  These are excellent thought pieces that highlight the opportunities, potential pitfalls, and subtleties of cause marketing today.  (To see what people are saying about Buckets for the Cure on Twitter right now, click here).

Breast Cancer Action: Think Before You Pink

“We started Think Before You Pink to pull back the curtain on the surge in pink cause marketing. We are deeply concerned about the implications of KFC’s and Komen for the Cure’s new ‘Buckets for the Cure’ campaign.  KFC = Komen Fails Communities”

Getting Attention: How a Nonprofit Brand Goes Bust — Komen’s KFC Pink Buckets for the Cure

“My disappointment is a shadow of what you’d feel on discovering your spouse has been having a long-term affair, while you and the rest of the family carried on based on the assumption that s/he was in. The person you thought you knew is really someone different, which kills your trust of him/her across the board.”

Selfish Giving: Komen’s Cause Marketing Program Isn’t Fingerlickin’ Good

“This is America where money can justify any crime, wash away any guilt, sanitize any reputation and rationalize any bad idea.  As a cause marketer who loves to win and close deals, I understand why Komen wanted to work with KFC. The lure of seven-figures. The promotion. It’s intoxicating. You talk yourself into it. Would I have advocated a similar partnership within my organization? Maybe. But thankfully my colleagues and superiors have better judgement than I do. Komen, at least in this instance, has been blinded by its ambitions.”

Rally the Cause: Cause Dissonance — KFC and Komen Buckets for the Cure

“While the website is impressive and puts the focus on the cause, it’s full of cause dissonance. That’s problematic as we become increasingly interconnected.  From the same web browser I viewed the campaign website, I did a few quick searches to learn more about the nutritional information of KFC buckets of chicken and the role of obesity in cancer.”

Geoff Livingston: Dancing With the Devil — Cause Marketing for Nonprofits

“In reality, while there is a mismatch in this partnership, the fault actually lies with Komen and not KFC. This represents a larger issue where nonprofits consistently choose money over strategic partnerships, dancing with the wrong partner and degrading their brand value.”

Three Ninety Eight: When Charity is a Marketing Stunt

“Corporations are creating unneccessarily unhealthy products and are mass marketing them to children and low-income communities, resulting in the highest rates of obesity and diabetes that this country has ever seen. Corporate social responsibility campaigns like the one that KFC launched with Susan G. Komen for the Cure appear to be an attempt to placate consumers and draw attention away from any negative associations with their products — rather than a genuine effort to help anyone.”

CNN: Activists Call Foul on KFC Bucket Campaign

New York University professor Marion Nestle tells CNN, “The goals of food companies, alas, are not the same as the goals of public health. Food companies are businesses that must sell expanding numbers of products. While it seems possible that their goals and those of public health could overlap, they rarely do. Buckets for the Cure gets money for whatever it does. KFC sells more buckets. Sounds good, if you don’t think about it too much.”

Beanstockd: New KFC Buckets for the Cure Campaign Gives You Excuse to Eaet Fried Chicken

“Although many have boycotted this idea, we say go for it! It’s fairly obvious that in America, where the obesity rate is over 30%, people are going to eat what they want to eat — we might as well raise some money in support of something along the way.”

fitsugar: KFC’s Buckets for the Cure: Cool or Not?

“On a very basic level, fried chicken is not the healthiest menu choice and can lead to obesity. And many doctors agree that obesity puts a woman at higher risk for developing breast cancer, since many breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, a hormone produced by fat tissue.”

Click Send, Raise Money

What if you could support your favorite cause every time you send an email?  Well, it’s gotten that easy.  Enmi Kendall, founder of replyforall, believes taking action should be a simple process.  replyforall has a great concept: you “donate” your email signature to the cause of your choice and replyforall places graphic ads featuring your cause and carefully selected sponsors.  With every email you send, you raise money and awareness for your specific cause.

Enmi is definitely on to something.  Not only is she finding new reasons for companies and nonprofits to work together, but she also understands that constituents are excited to carry causes they feel passionate about into their own communities online.  I think of the Iranian elections in June when millions of people showed their solidarity by turning their Twitter avatars and Facebook profile pictures green.  Those were small gestures, but collectively they had a big impact.  replyforall’s model makes those small gestures go even farther.

Check out our interview below.

Where did the idea for replyforall come from?

Most recently, I was with The New York Times digital strategy team prior to launching replyforall.com in September 2008.  While immersed in the digital media industry and as an early adopter myself, I saw the immense user engagement with social media platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn.  While users were growing these communities by spending hours generating content by posting photos and comments, the users never reaped the rewards of their hard work.  Each user was publishing content—but where was the ‘thank you’ back to the users?

At the same time, I saw that the most established, easily accessible form of social media is none other than email! It’s not just the tech-savvy, early adopters who email, but rather everyone.  It’s universal and not intimidating. We email the friends and family we know and love everyday—and our inbox very much reflects the most important people in our lives.

So I wanted to couple the two: to take the millions of social interactions living everyday in our emails already and convert them into an asset that can be used for good in the world.

Tell me what it’s been like working with both for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations.

What’s been interesting to see is that both companies and nonprofits have so much in common in their objectives.

More and more, I think companies are beginning to understand that simply forcing their marketing on users isn’t working. If the message isn’t useful or relevant to users, users (rightly) tune it out.  For nonprofits, given the downturn in the market, they’re becoming more receptive to exploring new sources of funds beyond traditional donations straight from supporters’ own checkbooks.

But an equally important goal for them is to identify and engage with their future potential donors and supporters much earlier than they might otherwise. For example, if they typically start recruiting donors who are in their early 40’s, replyforall users average younger in age: most of our users are in their 20’s and early 30’s.  With replyforall, nonprofits can identify potential supporters a full ten to twenty years earlier than they would otherwise and start having a relationship with them, similar to what our sponsor brands do.

The win-win is there for both companies and nonprofits.  What’s been helpful is both parties seeing that users clearly understand the model of interplay—that, in fact, the relationship of the brands with the nonprofits is precisely why they’ve signed up.  The fact that the users are in the driver’s seat can be comforting to both companies and brands because it’s explicit user validation each time.  However, it is a new departure from established models, so big props to our sponsor companies and nonprofit partners for joining in the mission early on!

There’s been some backlash in the cause community against an increase of “slacktivism” or “clicktivism”.  What’s your take on this?

replyforall is anchored by the belief that the most sustainable way for people to have an impact is to make it a part of what they do every day.  If participating is too painful, too hard to remember, or only appealing to a handful of people, then it limits our overall impact potential.

So if we have to pick between 5 people lifting 100 pounds of effort each day on behalf of our world or 1 million people lifting 1 pound a day, I think we can see what has more potential for scale.  There are going to be some people at one end of the spectrum that can do the heavy-lifting and are energized by the hard work of engaging at a grassroots level for an activist initiative. But if that can’t be for everyone right off the bat, then no judgments!  We should harness the potential of even incremental efforts that more of us can offer as a first step in a ladder to further engagement upwards—which is what replyforall aims to do.

What are the benefits beyond the donation made to the organization?

I hope that using replyforall in everyday emails reinforces your commitment to your cause by extending your knowledge and kicking off discourse.  For example, more than half of our users customize their signatures with rotating factoids related to their selected cause.  After sending hundreds of emails with a new factoid in it each time, you come to read and retain more than you’d imagine! As do the friends and family receiving your emails. And that’s one more step to helping us on our way towards deepening awareness of the issues and challenges facing our world, so we step towards greater engagement.

Any predictions for the future of digital advertising?

I think the best type of advertising is going to be more like an integrated part of a person’s day by becoming more relevant and useful to them. I think being ‘useful’ will be a great coattail that advertisers can ride to being relevant in a person’s very busy digital day online.

That relevance will translate into awareness and then appreciation of the brand’s value. Our sponsors are playing a very integral part to the replyforall model by driving a very special type of value to our users: picking up the tab to drive funds to their favorite causes. That “payback” isn’t lost on our users and has both an immediate and long-lasting residual awareness among them.  The best advertisers understand that the currency is relevance and that lasting relevance can’t be bullied into: it should be earned, as in any viable personal relationship.

But I think the best advertisers will take a page from how the best conversationalists engage their counterparts: by listening first to see what needs are being expressed—and then filling that need by being first and foremost useful to the user. The repeat invitation to the party will follow naturally then.

The Fun of Fundraising

If you notice a surge in moustache-wearers this fall, you can probably thank Adam Garone, CEO and co-founder of Movember.   He’s transformed the moustache into a symbol of support, a conversation starter, and a monster fundraiser for men’s health across the globe.

Adam’s work is proof of the new ways young people are giving back.  They’re not just writing a check once a year during the holidays.  They’re living their values on a daily level and contributing with more than their dollars.  That means the future of fundraising is not just about moving people to give money—it’s about engaging them in interesting ways and empowering them to carry your work into their communities.

Check out our interview below.

Tell me what happens in ‘Movember’.

Movember is the month formerly known as November, where we challenge men to grow a moustache for 30 days.

The idea is that you register at www.movember.com, start Movember 1 clean shaven and then for the remainder of the month grow, flow and show your moustache.

And why the moustache?

The moustache becomes our ribbon by which we raise funds and awareness for the fight against men’s cancers.

Each of the guys becomes a walking billboard promoting men’s health.

After all, if you’re sporting a moustache for the first time in your life you will be compelled in meetings and out socially to explain your new look.  The moustache opens up conversations about prostate and testicular cancer, conversations men don’t normally have.

What about the other 11 months of the year?

Last year the campaign raised $24 million USD and was run in the US, Canada, Australia (where it originated), New Zealand, the UK, Ireland and Spain.  We had more than 172,000 registered participants, more than 600,000 individual donors and had 28 end of Movember parties attended by around 30,000 people.  When you run an event on that scale it’s a year round effort.

Throughout the year we work closely with our beneficiary partners who administer the funds we raise and report back to the participants on the impact they are having from the funds they raise.

So you’re growing moustaches, you’re throwing parties, you have sponsors like DC Shoes, Canadian Club, Quiksilver. That’s a pretty new type of nonprofit, isn’t it?

One of our stated aims is not to be like a typical charity—we don’t do auctions, we don’t do dinners, we don’t do runs or walks.  We grow moustaches!

To engage men in a charity about cancers that affect men you need to approach things very differently.  First and foremost, Movember is FUN, it’s irreverent and a little anti-establishment but it’s for a critically important cause that has long been neglected. It’s this combination that engages men and women in the campaign.

Your background is in business and marketing.  I want to know how the work you’re doing now is different than the work you were doing in the software industry.

There are very few differences.  Movember is a brand, we have customers, we have a product that needs to provide real value to in order to engage our customers.  We use web based technologies and social media to efficiently reach our customers and operate the campaign.

I don’t like the term not-for-profit and we don’t use it at Movember.  We are all about profit—our fundraising and administration costs run at 9% of the funds we raise.  The only difference is how the profit is applied. In our case the profit is used by our beneficiary partners—the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Lance Armstrong Foundation to fund programs that help improve the state of men’s health.

So you can see that we run Movember as a business.