Forbes' piece on Vice breaking the billion-dollar valuation for its mix of original video programming — including Vice's VBS.tv partnership with MTV, YouTube's original-channel push this year and content for MTV and CNN) and branded entertainment partnerships such as the Creators Project with Intel — is as interesting for its insights into Vice as it is for surfacing Tom Freston's role as an advisor to the rising media brand.

The former chairman and CEO of MTV Networks has been keeping a relatively low profile since being chucked out of Viacom in 2006 after disagreeing with Sumner Redstone. Now an entertainment and media investor via his Firefly3 LLC and the chairman of the ONE Campaign, Freston is more committed than ever to social innovation, cause marketing and corporate citizenship, as he outlines in an interview with Kinsey last month.

Levi's released another mini-doc in its 2010 Go Forth campaign, featuring the good people of Braddock, Pennsylvania. The brand is working with the town to restore pride and jobs through a year-long "We Are All Workers" pro-social commitment touting the virtues of work (building a Braddock community center) and working together (via printmaking workshops, coming next to New York). And, of course, denim workwear. Levi's brand of denim workwear. Click through for a look at Levi's workwear collaboration with designer Billy Reid.Continue reading...