Last Friday, Stuart Elliott of the NY Times wrote about GQ Magazine’s new “charitable” marketing campaign supporting “The Gentleman’s Fund”:
The project will be promoted in a print and online campaign that carries the theme “Better men. Better world.†The fund begins with $325,000 and has a goal of raising $2 million, said Peter King Hunsinger, vice president and publisher at GQ, part of the Condé Nast Publications unit of Advance Publications.
Mr. Hunsinger said the seed donations came from 55 contributors, including Bloomingdale’s, a division of Federated Department Stores; the Carat North America media agency, part of the Aegis Group; the Gucci Group; Moët & Chandon, owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton; and the YouTube unit of Google.
The always perspicacious Elliott sees the growing trend toward Marketing for Good describing it as follows:
The project is an example of cause-related marketing or cause marketing, which is becoming increasingly popular on Madison Avenue. The idea is to burnish the image of a brand or company by forging ties with a philanthropy or charity. Cause marketing has been around for more than two decades, but recently seems to be gathering steam. One reason is the ardent interest in causes among younger Americans.
Marketing for Good embraces this campaign as a positive step towards aligning the interests of the brand (in this case, attracting readers and advertisers) and the world it shares. Being a well-dressed gentleman (or just a gentleman) should include a generosity of spirit and the recognition that its not just about looking good but also being good.
While campaigns like this can feel forced, this particular effort can be traced back to an article from the December issue of GQ called “The New Rules of Charity,” which noted “that this new generation of guys wants to be involved and find a way to make a difference.†GQ is smart to embrace this enlightened spirit and I for one, hope it enlightens and inspires everyone it touches.