What Color is Your Bra?

Yesterday I recieved this message in my Facebook inbox:

Write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. And send this on to ONLY women, no men …. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the guys will wonder why all the girls have a color in their status…

So many women started to participate in the chain message; my mini-feed was a rainbow in text form. Today I even caught a commercial for tonight’s news discussing the topic of color statuses on Facebook. Hugely successful awareness stunt!

But not everyone was a fan… One of my Facebook friends put up a status that expressed her disgust with the stunt, and I of course responded:

Her: Has facebook really become that dumb where ppl need to start advertising what color underwear they’re wearing???!! Realllly??? Cause I couldn’t give two shits its retarded. That’s all

Me: It is to raise awareness for breast cancer

Her: That makes no sense. What does the color of ur underwear have to do with raising awareness?? Go on a walk or raise money. Putting the color of ur underwear on facebook doesn’t really do much but tell ppl the color of ur underwear. Hmmmmmm. I’m all for raising awareness. But this is quite silly. No?

Me: Walks and raising money are definitely more proactive efforts, I think using facebook was an attempt at a fun and quirky way to get ppl talking. It worked in that sense.

Her: Seems that all its doing is telling ppl the color of ur underwear… “Oh hey what color is ur underwear?–black– oh hey cool have u heard about raising awareness for cancer??” ???? I guess it just seems pointless to me. Idk but like I said if u feel ur making a difference in some strange way then go for it.

Although she is obviously NOT a fan, she is talking about it! Therefore, SUCCESS!

Filed under: Social Media, Bra, Cancer, Facebook, Publicity, Stunt

Success of a XEROX Flack

One of the most powerful, but often “forgotten”, practices of Public Relations is charity involvement or philanthropic association. Getting caught up in day-to-day press releases, media relations and our twitter addiction is a common offense of the industry.

XEROX has done a fantastic job stepping outside of their typical realm of selling office printers and supplies.

Let’s Say Thanks is a movement XEROX created to enable people across the country to send their gratitude and wishes to soldiers overseas. Individuals can choose a postcard designed by submissions from children all across the USA, enter their name, city, and then choose a prewritten message or write their own. XEROX prints submissions on their Xerox iGen3 Digital Production Press and mails out care packages by the military support organization Give2TheTroops.

My favorite part of this mission is that I don’t have to create a personal account and give out my information in order to have a thoughtful card sent to those in the armed forces. There is even a section on their website where you can read messages sent back from soldiers, expressing their gratitude.

XEROX has successfully created a community outreach program that inspires soldiers and enables people back home to feel like they are making a small difference. Not only that, they are promoting their own product through printing each postcard.

Filed under: Public Relations, Philanthropic, Publicity, Soldiers, XEROX