Aldo Fights AIDS – Get Militant, Get Your Empowerment Tags

The cynical marketing freaks will call this the end to the elastic band era or just another version of the same. There is no doubt that Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong yellow elastic bracelet has ushered in a new era for the cause-related marketing industry.
As far as I’m concerned, the more bracelets out there, the better. So yes, Armstrong’s yellow has been adopted into other colors for other causes, and as a passionate community person, this is all good news.
I also saw a billboard on my way into work featuring Christina Aguilera covering her ears with the tagline, “Hear No Evil?” next to a logo that said, “Aldo Fights AIDS.” It turns out that Aldo Shoes has launched a huge cause-related marketing campaign in conjunction with YouthAIDS, “an HIV/AIDS education and prevention initiative.” The relationship was launched to foster deeper awareness toward education and prevention of HIV/AIDS among teenagers and young adults.
The campaign is titled, “Hear No Evil? See No Evil? Speak No Evil?” and features black and white images of stars like Aguilera, Elijah Wood, Salma Hayek, LL Cool J and many more as they either cover their ears or have their mouth or eyes covered by duct tape, with the intent to get people to stop and notice.
The campaign is also being supported by “empowerment tags”- which are, essentially, a three dog-tag set that are individually engraved with the words, “Hear,” “See” and “Speak.”
I admire Aldo. Not just for being a company of that magnitude that came from (and still is headquartered in) Montreal, but because of their community involvement. This is (and will become) a huge campaign. It’s great to see a lot of its rewards going to those that really need it.
So yes, the cynical marketer might want to call this a rip-off or next-gen to the Livestrong dynasty. I say, “hello empowerment tags.”
Check out the website here: Aldo Fights Aids.