As Forrest Gump might have said, causes and celebrities are like peas and carrots. They just go together. And I think it's a good thing. Sure there are times when some might seem to be doing it for the wrong reasons, but for the most part it is one of the best ways for a cause to get attention and money.
A new website called SixDegrees.org has recently launched. It shouldn't be difficult to figure out which star is behind it - Kevin Bacon. It's a cool site that has about 20 celebrities and their causes highlighted. You can learn more about each cause as well as donate to them. And as Kevin Bacon tells you in a welcoming video, you can become the "celebrity" for your own cause on the site. Great concept.
We have worked with celebrities in our cause programs at Barkley for more than a decade now. And we have new programs we are working on where we believe celebrities can play an important role. Whether we like to admit it or not, all of us like celebrities, whether they be in movies, music, sports or politics. We may not like all of them, but the ones we do like can influence how we think and what actions we take. Especially when it comes to helping us decide which causes we are going to support. I'm not suggesting it's the only factor, but celebrity influence does matter.
So if you can ignore the dumb and outrageous actions of the few Paris Hiltons in the world, the next time you see a celebrity pushing their favorite cause, give them a gold star. It's a good thing they are doing.
Thanks to Britt for pointing out SixDegrees.org.
So is it just me, or are the results of the 6 degrees site a little underwhelming? Total donations of $75K as of 1/29, it doesn't seem like this concept is exactly setting the world on fire.
Posted by: Mark | Monday, January 29, 2007 at 03:19 PM
It just launched a couple of weeks ago so I think it might be early to write it off. But more importantly, I think it is a concept which lends itself to helping lots of different causes as well as just trying to raise a lot of money for one cause. I think it has a real Web 2.0 feel to it in terms of creating an environment to engage people to get involved and to interact with each other.
Posted by: Mike | Thursday, February 01, 2007 at 04:08 PM