As in spend more. The ad is a promotion for American Express' Charge Against Hunger campaign, which the company launched four years ago. It sounds elegantly simple. Share Our Strength. Not surprisingly, the competition is catching on.
Corporate charity is nothing new, but it has always been one of the less pure forms of giving.
The nonprofit partnerships established by American Express and Visa are only two examples of the tie-ins that bright marketing types have devised to promote a company's products by projecting a responsible, socially conscious image. Club, a national group that opens meeting places for cancer patients and their families. This new, strategic way of giving began in 1983, when AmEx coined the first of these terms to describe its underwriting of the Statue of Liberty restoration project. Other, larger companies followed, tying financial commitments to targeted social causes. Now companies carefully search for the next hot social cause, market it alongside their own products, and then proclaim their social conscience to any customer who will listen.