You may notice that some of your favorite celebrities are eerily silent on their Facebook and Twitter accounts today. No need to worry – this digital disappearance is all for a good cause!
Today is World AIDS Day, and Alicia Keys, Usher, Justin Timberlake, Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga and several other celebrities are teaming up with Keep A Child Alive for the Buy Life campaign, using innovative strategies and technologies to spur donations for HIV/AIDS relief in Africa and India.
Each celebrity has pledged to sacrifice the life of their social media accounts to save real lives through digital donations. While the social media accounts of these celebrities may be dead, fans can bring them back to life by achieving the campaign goal of $1 million in donations.
Contributions to Keep A Child Alive help to fund medical treatment to those affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India, and also provide care and support to their families. Keep A Child Alive also focuses on orphans in these regions and funds 10 orphan centers and clinical facilities.
Buy Life is using an innovative giving approach through barcode technology. These barcodes are printed on t-shirts used in campaign promotional photos. Fans can simply download a Stickybits or Wimo application on their smartphones, take a picture of the barcode, and instantly make a $10 donation to Keep A Child Alive. For fans without a smartphone, there is also a text-to-give option by texting “BUYLIFE” to 90999, or donations can be made through the Buy Life website.
To continue to spread the message, you can purchase your own barcode t-shirt on the campaign website. For just $35, you too can be a walking billboard, where friends, family or total strangers can scan the barcode to make their own donation. Similar to many text-to-give campaigns, barcode donations are an easy way to give to a cause and can be done immediately. In a day and age where people are always on-the-go and never without their mobile devices, this new technology is also fun and interactive for participants.
Considering the large social media presence of the celebrities involved in Buy Life, surely on World AIDS Day fans will miss getting the regular updates from their favorite celebrities. Whether you want to bring back Ryan Seacrest’s tweets or Serena Williams’ Facebook updates, the social media accounts will not be resuscitated until $1 million has been raised.
Download your Stickybits or Wimo application now, contribute to this innovative campaign, and help victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.
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Jean Case at the 2013 Yale Philanthropy Conference
