"Part of my deal with Target is that they have to start affiliating themselves with LGBT charity groups and begin to reform and make amends for the mistakes they've made in the past...our relationship is hinged upon their reform in the company to support the gay community and to redeem the mistakes they've made supporting those groups." — Lady Gaga talks to Billboard for a cover story about the exclusive deal with Target for Born This Way, her upcoming album.

The big-box retailer last year angered the gay community after corporate donations to an organization supporting anti-gay policies and political candidates came to light last year, for which its CEO was forced to apologize. Billboard posts a transcript of its reporter's conversation with Target's VP of public relations about Lady Gaga's statements here.

(h/t Jezebel)

Coca-Cola and Heinz announced a landmark partnership today, one that will replace 120 million bottles of Heinz ketchup in the US with Coca-Cola's eco-friendly PlantBottle packaging in 2011, starting with the brand's 20 oz. size in June.

Consumers will be able to identify the new Heinz bottles by a so-called talking label that asks, "Guess What My Bottle is Made Of?"

Coca-Cola's's award-winning PlantBottle — which will be used in five billion units of the beverage-maker's various brands and products this year alone — looks, feels and functions just like traditional PET plastic, and is fully recyclable. The only difference is that up to 30% of the material is made from plants.

It's a big vote of confidence for its green packaging, which Coca-Cola hopes to sell to other brands beyond Heinz.Continue reading...

Are inclusive HR policies good for a brand's PR and corporate image? That's a question many major brands are asking these days.

Consider a hot-button issue such as gender resassignment surgery, a major life change that not all companies support — or want their diversity policies known externally.

AP, reporting on the latest Corporate Equality Index published by by the Human Rights Campaign, notes that major employers including Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, Campbell Soup and Walt Disney all now (quietly) provide transgender-inclusive health benefits for employees undergoing a sex change. 

Eighty-five others, including AT&T, Sears, Yahoo!, American Express, Kraft, Kodak — which isn't alone in taking public pride in its GLBT Pride program — Morgan Stanley, PricewaterhouseCoopers, General Motors and State Farm pay for a minimum of one surgery during sex reassignment, which is now considered “medically indicated” according to the American Medical Association, and not optional.Continue reading...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken the pledge. This week he joined the Who's Who of billionaires signing the Giving Pledge to donate more than half their personal wealth to charitable causes by age 65. 

Some might decry it as a no-money-down bid to add luster to corporate social responsibility efforts. Zuckerberg would beg to differ.Continue reading...

Blogivation. It's Procter & Gamble's way of saying it's engaging bloggers in its corporate social responsibility efforts. P&G is hoping those efforts aren't a wash — particularly as its CSR power is focused on a multi-year commitment to helping clean the world's water supplies, particularly for children and creatures.

The consumer goods giant has helped clean up oil spills including the recent BP disaster with its Dawn dishwashing liquid, and Pantene is the latest P&G brand stepping up in its "Healthy Hair for Healthy Water" pro-social initiative aimed at developing countires.

Keeping the ball rolling, the company has announced its blogger-focused Give Health Clean Water Blogivation effort to help make clean water available for developing countries and disaster relief.Continue reading...

At Procter & Gamble's annual meeting of shareholders yesterday, the company showcased not only its achievements of the past year and plans for the next, but also highlighted its philanthropic and corporate social responsibility efforts.

Case in point: Brian Sasson, P&G's Global Social Investment Manager, who was shown (in the video above) talking about how his daughter's new eyeglasses made him realize that it's a rare sight in China to see kids wearing glasses.

The heartwarming upshot: he duly partnered with Luxottica, featured here back in July, and helped fund Luxottica's OneSight initiative to bring glasses to more than 800 Chinese students through mobile vision clinics at P&G's Hope Schools in rural China.

Wal-Mart's latest advertising campaign is promoting its employees with not only standalone spots, but individual microsites. For example, Nicholas Qualman, a divisional learning and development manager, is featured in the spot above and via a vanity URLed microsite, WalmartNicholas.com. The marketing initiative promotes Wal-Mart's Community Action Network, which the brand also promotes on Twitter, Facebook, its YouTube channel and on its LinkedIn profile.

Pantene this week announced its first foray into cause-related marketing: "Healthy Hair for Healthy Water," a charitable partnership that will support parent company P&G's Children’s Safe Drinking Water initiative.

The goal: to help P&G meet its corporate commitment to saving a life every hour through clean water, preventing an estimated 20 million days of illness and saving a projected 2,500 lives. The practical tactics: P&G is providing half a billion liters of clean drinking water in the developing world through PUR packets that transform contaminated water into clean, drinkable water. P&G announced the program at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative (the stated goal: providing safe drinking water to a million African school children by 2011).

Pantene's first philanthropic program was aptly unveiled at the just-wrapped 2010 Clinton Global Initiative, the annual meeting hosted by President Bill Clinton with corporate and political leaders. The celebrity ambassadors for Pantene's campaign: supermodel Gisele Bündchen and Indonesian singer/song writer Anggun.Continue reading...