There is little if any doubt that Toys R Us cares for kids.

The retailer's corporate citizenship efforts include offering toys for differently-abled children, and its annual Toys for Tots campaign donates a portion of holiday sales to children in need — raising $3.6 million during its seventh annual, just-wrapped, holiday campaign featuring celebrity spokesman Shaquille O'Neal.

But we have to admit to being somewhat baffled by the "Beware of Pedofiles" warning on a store receipt issued in Staten Island, NY. Typo notwithstanding, it's no doubt well-intended, if a little opaque. (Or maybe the message was triggered by the final item?)

With over 100 years of service, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is one of those top tier non-profit brands that has a high level of awareness. Yet most people think the organization needs volunteers, not money.

In these challenging economic times, however, Big Brothers Big Sisters, which often turns to corporate partners for financial support, is doing something it has never done before: reaching out to the general public for donations. In a campaign starting today called "Start Something," Big Brothers Big Sisters is using a mix of television and print advertising, outdoor media, online advertising, and social media to get its message across. Continue reading...

Last October, Gawker Media site Jezebel (tagline: "Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women") launched a college scholarship drive for two stars of a reality TV series on MTV. Originally part of the show 16 and Pregnant, they had given up their baby for adoption and MTV continued to follow them on the spin-off series, Teen Mom.

Of the fund-raiser, Jezebel stated, "Catelynn and Tyler have won us over, exhibiting strength and maturity in the face of hardship, and they've expressed a desire to continue their schooling. So we've decided to help them raise some cash for their college education." The drive produced thousands of dollars in donations from the site's readers.

But a recent court case involving another of the Teen Mom stars resulted in the disclosure of MTV pay rates for the cast, in turn making Jezebel's charitable fund-raiser look more like a giant grift, with Gawker Media, MTV and the teens all winning out. It's a fascinating case study in transparency for brands and their pro-social efforts.Continue reading...

Fashion has substantial energy impact — and we don’t mean just socially. Cultivating the cotton and fibers that go into clothes uses massive amounts of water and fertilizer, and then there’s the energy required to manufacture and ship products which consumers then wash and wash and wash.

That's why Levi's, the defining brand in blue jeans, has come up with Water‹Less jeans, hitting stores this month. These green jeans will cost the same, but use 28% less water in the finishing process, which when multiplied by the 1.5 million pairs Levi's expects to sell this spring, adds up to 16 million fewer liters of water consumed.

Levi's assessed the resources used in 501 denim in 2007 and discovered its jeans were, like the human body, mostly made of water. The trick was how to wring the water, and the energy it entails, out of the brand's denim-making process.Continue reading...

Try to do a little good and what does it get you? A lot of heat.

PepsiCo's Pepsi Refresh Project launched a year ago as an alternative marketing vehicle to its Super Bowl spend. The socially conscious crowdsourcing effort was designed to give consumers a voice and stake — not to mention the opportunity "to play a central role in developing and promoting ideas that they believed would move the world forward," according to Frank Cooper, the company's chief consumer engagement officer.Continue reading...

Knock-out Christmas window displays aren't unique to New York retail brands, of course. Neiman Marcus takes its Christmas windows at its downtown Dallas flagship to outer space this season, in support of local Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

For the second consecutive year, the luxury retailer's downtown store windows let children climb in from the street to experience the display through giant tubing. This year, the luxury retailer took the concept further.Continue reading...

Macy's New York created the concept of Christmas windows. This year, they relate to the classic Christmas "Yes, Virginia" tale, tying into the animated TV retelling of the story that the retail brand sponsored on CBS on December 17th.

Macy's stores have been collecting letters to Santa this season, and donating a dollar to the Make-a-Wish foundation for every "Dear Santa" letter received.Continue reading...

2010 may not have been a good year for the global economy, but it was a great year for social media — and brands starting to figure out what to do with their social marketing efforts and budgets.

Beyond the headline-grabbing evolutions at Facebook and Twitter, technological advances impacted cause-wired philanthropy in multiple ways, from crowdsourcing social marketing (a la Pepsi Refresh) to bringing a social conscience to bear via mobile apps with benefits.Continue reading...