Staples Enlists Celebs For Back-To-School
Staples is ramping up its back-to-school charitable effort with the help of three celebrities in a digitally focused effort.
In conjunction with DoSomething.org, the Boston-based retailer is bringing the national school drive program online and mobile in a new way for the brand.
The effort, from Alloy's AMP Agency and Alloy Digital, kicks off July 6 and runs through Sept. 18. "Give-Back Pack" (www.staplesgivebackpack.com) features country music star Kellie Pickler, TV star/singer Drake Bell and pop music star Jason Derulo as "pack leaders."
Fans can go online to pick their pack leader and gain exclusive content to their celebrities as well as tips for planning their own Do Something 101 drives. With every member who signs up to join their pack, the celebrities will donate $1 to Do Something 101, up to $5,000 per pack. At the end of the program, select winners will have a chance to meet their favorite star and receive special autographed merchandise.
Also new in 2010, Staples has made it easy for parents to get involved through a new text-to-donate campaign. By texting NOTEBOOK to 20222, they can donate $5 directly to the Do Something 101 campaign. Funds raised will be dispersed to the beneficiary organizations already matched to Staples stores. Staples kicked off the back-to-school effort with a PSA in May starring "Twilight" actress Nikki Reed.
A new PSA featuring the three music artists will run on sites in the Alloy Digital Network, which is the top-ranked community for teens according to comScore, reaching over 50 million young adults. The PSA also will air on Alloy's Channel One Network this fall, the television news network for teens reaching over 6 million students.
By signing up for a "Give-Back Pack," teens can get behind an important cause, spread the word and gain access to exclusive content and sweepstakes offers, says Don LeBlanc, Staples Inc. senior vice president of retail marketing.
"The back-to-school season is a perfect time to conduct this cause marketing campaign," LeBlanc tells Marketing Daily. "Our marketing messages communicate our numerous ways to save, our expanded assortment of technology products and services, and the hottest new supplies.
"We can also remind them that some people cannot afford even basic school supplies like notebooks and pencils. The Staples/Do Something 101 School Supply Drive is an easy way for anyone to make a difference in their local communities."
Staples has a long-standing history and commitment to supporting education and wants to arm young students with the tools they need to succeed in school, LeBlanc says. "The first two years of the campaign were so successful in helping thousands of teens prepare for school that we decided to continue these efforts for a third year to make the campaign the most successful program to date," he adds.
During the first two Do Something 101 school supply drives, Staples and DoSomething.org, with the help of celebrity supporters Jordin Sparks and Ciara, raised more than $750,000.
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Posted Tue, Jul 6, 2010 @ 10:18pm
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The Thirst Project: Using Water to Build Better Lives
As I write this, there is a cooler filled with fresh, clean water that gets delivered to my office twice a week within two feet of me, and a bathroom with running water within 10 feet. I keep a water bottle within an arm's length at all times that I refill whenever I want. Just like most Americans, I don't have to work for clean drinking water at all. It takes something like The Thirst Project to remind me of just how lucky we all are.
Why? Because in the section titled "The Problem" on the project's website, they remind us that 1.1 billion people in the world don't have access to potable drinking water and proper sanitization. That works out to one in six people. Water-borne diseases account for 80 percent of all global illnesses and are responsible for for 2.2 million deaths each year — 4,500 children die from these illnesses every day.
Not only is clean water not available to a vast majority of the world, water is not easily accessible, which causes an endless cycle of poverty. "The average distance a woman walks to collect water is 3.75 miles. The task of water-collecting falls on young girls, leaving them no time or energy for school. Without an education, it is nearly impossible to break the cycle of poverty. Lack of access to water prevents every other element of community development from taking place effectively. Water empowers agriculture, education and micro-finance. Without water, there is no life," says The Thirst Project.
The solution to breaking the cycle is actually quite simple: the water is right there under the ground in many places. Unfortunately, communities in developing nations lack the funding and the tools to drill into the earth for it. That's why The Thirst Project has made it their goal to raise awareness and build wells. All it takes to build one clean-water well for up to 500 people is $5,000. Once the wells are built, The Thirst Project forms a "water committee" in the community to educate residents about the importance of sanitization, hand-washing and keeping the well clean.
The project started when 19-year-old Seth Maxwell saw a photograph his friend had taken on a humanitarian service trip to Uganda. He knew he wanted to help, but wasn't sure what a college student living in Los Angeles could do. They started small: "I gathered seven of my closest college friends together and we decided to tell these people’s story. We pooled all of our money together (which literally amounted to $70) and were able to purchase 1,000 bottles of water," Maxwell writes."We raised awareness to over 1,000 people about the water crisis that day and were able to turn $70, into $1,700. This was used to fund our first rehabilitation of a freshwater well."
The group thought they were finished, but then the calls started coming. People wanted to know if Maxwell's "organization" could come to their school or church to speak about the water crisis. It wasn't an organization then; it was just eight college students, but the group decided to make something out of their efforts. Now, The Thirst Project travels around the country speaking at schools so that students can run their own fundraisers to help build freshwater wells.
On June 29, 90210 star AnnaLynne McCord hosted the Inaugural Thirst Project Gala in Hollywood to recognize people who are raising awareness about the global water crisis. Among the honorees were actor and singer Drake Bell, who was given the Pioneering Spirit Award for his work to help raise the profile of The Thirst Project. Other stars who turned up to support Maxwell's cause included Glee stars Naya Rivera and Harry Shum, Jr. and actor Samm Levine from Inglorious Basterds.
Click here to get involved with The Thirst Project today.
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Posted Sat, Jul 3, 2010 @ 11:21am
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Drake Bell perfers music
Translated via Google Translate
Become a benchmark in the international pop rock, especially the teen market is their next target
Drake Bell The good thing for sure is that knowing what he wants to do with your life. I'm just not sure that all your fans will understand one hundred percent. And he confesses that sits on a full musical maturity time, mesmerized by the sweetness of the flavored pop with heavy doses of rock. The problem with this euphoria is that for many will be a surprise to see him with a guitar, because the bulk of his fans know him for being an actor in the teen comedy Drake & Josh.
"Perhaps many people know me for me an actor, because I was very popular programs that were broadcast in many countries, but before I turned to acting, he was interested in making music. In fact, the situation was that, while in the program, producers were looking to give my character a personality and I suggested it was that of music, because I was dedicated to it, "explains the native of Orange County actor , California.
Drake Bell will be in the country to appear tomorrow in the Teatro Diana in our city, promising to show different side to the television program, this time much more emotional and reflective and a little child away from candor with which released the popular series, which still airs in Mexico through signal Nickelodeon (pay).
Grateful, but not attached
Drake is not deceived. He knows that the success is due to his character, Drake Parker, who appears in the teen series Drake & Josh. The issue tells the story of two brothers haunted by their evil sister. Drake considers this aspect, and especially his character on television, he left a lot, but now only devoted to music.
He also likes to make it clear to his fans, which for now will not return to the small screen, and it is not so joking and playful as it appeared in the concept created by the writer of youth programs, Dan Schneider, who also gave shape to the series Zoey 101. "I'm very grateful to the TV program Drake & Josh, because thanks to him, I know my music, and went through my Drake Parker's character that I can show up at forums of different countries to the safety of the public reminds me. The truth, in real life I'm not joking as the program and the show was something that I ended long ago. "
The truth is that the trophy room Drake owe much to the television program. It was he who won the 2008 Kid's Choice Award for best series, and Bell himself took the prize for best actor in the ceremony in their editions from 2005 to 2008. You can even boast that the series has its own game.
Learn from the great
American rock lover, Drake confesses that the tour of Mexico is unique, then with our country that can play live the subjects of his two materials: Telegraph (2005) and It's Only Time (2006). His third album has been in development since 2008, but hurry is something which does not, and so far has concentrated on giving his fans like Mexicans, especially the girls, who make up the bulk of the attendees of each shows offered in our country.
Drake makes it easy to do a little of everything on stage. He is a guitarist, pianist, drummer, singer and plays the ukulele. It also received private lessons from Roger Daltrey, lead singer of the legendary British band The Who.
However, it is not hard to guess that your goal is to become an international benchmark in the pop rock, especially for the teen market, which is constantly in search of a new figure. "I think the youth rates have become very global, all regions have their own pop rock stars and therefore also known artists from other countries. I think that's me, because I do my songs with the idea that the public likes without thinking about whether they are from Europe, Asia or America. "
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Posted Sat, Jun 26, 2010 @ 10:23pm
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Drake Bell cause furor among the youth at the National Auditorium
Translated via Google Translate
U.S. singer and actor Drake Bell caused a furor among youth during the concert which featured as part of their tour of Mexico, before starting the shooting of the film "The Fairly OddParents," based on the eponymous animated series.
For two hours, the star of "Drake & Josh" made its "show" for the second time at the National Auditorium in Mexico City, for the first time it happened in 2008.
Just the light intensity decreased from the enclosure as a sign that the show was to begin, young, mostly women and children, shouting deafening to meet his favorite artist that sang the song "Queen of symphaty."
Dressed in a tan suit and white shirt, Drake waved to fans in Spanish, a gesture that nine thousand spectators cheered him.
"Hola Mexico, good night," said the young man who is about to turn 24, and the response was immediate with more shouts of excitement.
Drake, who rose to fame for his work in that series of Nickelodeon, owned the stage walking from side to side to show their knowledge to receive private lessons with Roger Daltrey, the legendary British band.
"Up Periscope" and "Do what you want" were some of the songs that the audience chanted from start to finish. Accompanied by eight musicians, the youth who claimed to have no girlfriend, gave "Modern Times" and "Makes me happy."
Some girls showed their affection for the singer through banners that read love phrases like "We love you Drake!" Or motivation: "You're number one Drake", while in the more distant seats waving a flag Mexico.
The power of sympathy and seductiveness of Drake shone at the National Auditorium, for none of these took place during the entire concert, except his parents, who disbelieve in the ability to call the artist studied their performance through the big screens.
'Joining a fanclub "and" Sea Song "followed in the portfolio was only interrupted by isolated sentences launched in Spanish as:" Do're having fun? "," They are having fun, "" How are you? "" With Mexico "and" I love you Mexico. "
Although the production of his show was rather austere, none of that mattered to the public who invested in their ticket between 230 and 900 pesos to see their idol up close and in vivo, because the important thing was to enjoy the moment.
"Our Love", "Yesterday's Fool," "I know", "Shades of gray", "Found a way", "Fool the World" and "Unbelievable" seized more young people, who in time of the stanzas waving fluorescent lights.
Others, tried to catch every detail of the concert through your mobile phone, like Drake Bell with a video camera, while everyone raised their arms in jubilation when he sounded the chords of "Blackbird" success of The Beatles.
After living an unforgettable night, how he described it, Drake Bell, who has expressed his desire to become an idol like John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan, closed his involvement with "Fallen for you", "Rusted silouhette" " Break me down "and" End it good. "
The artist will give a concert over the 22 June at the Teatro Diana Guadalajara. During his career he has won the "Kids' Choice Awards" from 2005 to 2008 as Best Actor.
He has published four albums: "Telegraph" (2005), "It's Only Time" (2007), "Drake Bell at the National Auditorium (2008) and" Nashville Sessions "(2008).
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Posted Sat, Jun 26, 2010 @ 10:17pm
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