I’m a big fan of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without borders). They are an international medical humanitarian organization working in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. Basically they go to the places most organisations wouldn’t dare go, and help those who need it most. Volkswagen & Maxim have just teamed up to support them  in Haiti by auctioning off a celebrity-autographed 2010 Golf GTI hood.

VW collected more than 50 celebrity signatures at the 2010 Maxim Party to celebrate the Super Bowl this past weekend in Miami.  Celebrities included Evander Holyfield, Olivia Munn, Marisa Miller, Floyd Mayweather, Jermaine Dupri, Warren Moon, The All American Rejects, Gavin DeGraw, Nelly, Robert Horry, Joanna Kruppa, Ndamukon Suh, Kevin Connolly, Nick Lachey and Tom Arnold.
Bidding starts at $1000. Please help them by bidding your best on eBay, just click on the following link: http://tinyurl.com/haitimsf
If $1000 is a bit steep, please still go to http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/ and donate what you can, they are all modern day heroes and need our help.

Check out this brilliant idea in the above video from agency Mother, London. I wont spoil it too much for you, but it involves an innovative way of giving away $10,000 and a happy ending. (seen via: Brand Architect)

Just got sent this nice new campaign idea from Stella Artois using Augmented Reality tags to send Christmas eCards. I have a bit of a penchant for AR at the moment and can see some great uses for it in the near future (I’m even working on one myself right now with Saatchi). This campaign allows you to send an AR eCard to a friend who will see a festive scene with a greeting on the screen, if you blow into your mic you can even make the snow move. They have also kindly promised to save one million rainforest trees via the World Land Trust once one million Stella Artois Christmas e-cards have been sent around the world. That’s all great but I’m a bit curious about the fact they are trying to save trees by less paper being used, yet the AR tag is a 2 page print out document !, and the tag is huge so go easy if your low on ink. Nice idea but not sure they thought this through 100%. At least they tried though, and love the snow blowing through the microphone part. To make your own Stella Artois eCard click here.

Wonderful work from Young & Rubicam, Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the UNHCR ( The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). The copy reads; “Refugees would like to have the same problems you have.”

Just click on the pictures above to enlarge them.

(Hat tip: I Believe in Advertising)

Just watched this great PSA from a new humanitarian group called Nuru International. The clip above follows the story of Jake Harriman, the group’s founder and CEO. The charity is endeavouring to put an end to extreme poverty in order to help stop conflicts and wars escalating in the world. Great video, and a worthy cause. “Jake Harriman served over seven years as a platoon commander in both the Infantry and an elite unit of Marines called Force Recon. After completing two tours of duty in Iraq (receiving the Bronze Star for actions in combat) and fighting the war on terror all around the world, Jake came to the realization that the only chance we have of ending terrorism is to end extreme poverty. Jake left his career in the Marines to start an organization to end extreme poverty. He enrolled at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, and with the help of his classmates, professors, and some Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Jake formed Nuru International. This is his story. Original score donated by Tyler Bates, composer of over fifty films including 300, The Watchmen, Halloween and Dawn of the Dead.” Hat tip: AdFreak

GreaterGood SA is a local trust that helps enable over 1 800 local non-profit organisations. They run several yearly events and one of the upcoming is called Do it Day. The event aims to mobilise ‘Team South Africa’ and recruit a record 20 000 volunteers working on 2 000 projects this year, providing a huge range of options, so that each volunteer can find something that appeals to them. To help out and give a little something back just visit http://doitday.co.za/ and sign up to volunteer a couple hours of your day to make SA a better place. There are thousands of projects all over the country listed on the site, all you need to do is pick one that you like, sign up and pitch up on the 18th September. If your lazy you can also securely donate cash via the website to help out. Kudos to Ikineo, Old Mutual and Nedbank for sponsoring this event.

As part of Pedigree dog food’s global adoption campaign TBWA/Frederick in Chile came up with this great installation at a bus station in Chile to raise awareness of dogs stuck in shelters, and the need for adoption. They filmed a real dog at a shelter for a 24 hour period and then installed a plasma screen to the bus stop and surrounded the screen to look like a shed, with the screen acting as a window into the dogs life at the cramped shelter. The campaign has been a huge success generating 1000’s of press articles, blogs and even coverage on major news networks. For more info about the Pedigree adoption drive click here.

YouTube have teamed up with Oxfam to promote the Cannes Young Lions competition. This is the first time the competition is open to the general public. Entrants had 48 hours to make a video that creates awareness about climate change and the upcoming December’s UN climate change summit in Copenhagen.

Two winners of the Oxfam/YouTube competition will be announced on June the 5th (judged by public votes and industry gurus) and go to Cannes to form Team YouTube. They will compete against 37 other teams from around the world in the Young Lions Film competition. Final Teams at Cannes are issued with a Mobile Phone and given 48hours to shoot and edit a 60 second commercial on behalf of a charity.

The best commercial will be chosen the next day by Cannes judges and a winner announced.

To look at entries and vote for Team YouTube winners click here

Example of a fun entry below

Found via the fab chaps at AdLand, they have been showcasing highlights of the YouTube entrants on twitter @adland.

Prince Charles has started the Prince’s Rainforests Project to protect the worlds rainforests and stop deforestation. The ad features a rainforest Frog with many celebrities such as Daniel Craig, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, the Dalai Lama, Prince William, Prince Harry as well as Prince Charles himself. Great work by Hurrell, Moseley, Dawson & Grimmer and incredible to feature so many celebrities lending a helping hand to support the cause.To read up more on the project or get involved visit www.rainforestsos.org. The following quote from their site should give you a good idea why this is a noble cause: “Rainforests absorb nearly a fifth of all man-made CO2 emissions but they are currently being destroyed at the rate of a football pitch every four seconds. When these forests are burnt — for agriculture or mining, for example — they release stored CO2 back into the atmosphere, pushing annual CO2 emissions from tropical deforestation above those of the global transport network.”