More than 50 million Americans are “food insecure,” according to a 2011 US Department of Agriculture study. In its latest designer collaboration, Target is partnering with FEED Projects to help change that. 

Target is joining forces with Lauren Bush Lauren's FEED Projects, which has previously partnered with Gap, Bergdorf Goodman and Pottery Barn, but the Target partnership is the largest to date. The collection is due to launch June 30. The duo just wrapped up a five-city tour of Feeding America programs that took them to food banks and local pantries in San Francisco, Minnesota, New York City and more. Target and FEED are hoping the partnership will generate 10 million meals for Feeding America.

"Target (has) such a massive reach that we just don't have," Lauren told USA Today. "So it's wonderful when we can partner with Target to really just blow it out and have such a big impact in a short amount of time."Continue reading...

Here's another novel Valentine's Day promotion — Kraft is running a Twitter-based campaign with brand voice Ted Williams. The "homeless to Hollywood" voiceover phenom is reading fans' Valentine's Day Tweets tagged #voiceoflove and for every tag, Kraft will donate 100 boxes (up to 100,000 in total) of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese to Feeding America. Check out one example below and more on KMC's YouTube channel.Continue reading...

'Tis the season for certain types of brands. And before we get to the January marketing blowout for weight-management brands, there's something we all must get past. It's gastronomic, too, but it requires overconsumption rather than dieting. It's holiday eating — or, rather, overeating. And Pepto-Bismol is all over it.

The pink post-feast recovery remedy by Procter & Gamble has launched an opportunistic advertising campaign that uses humor, elves and lots of food to make points about Pepto-Bismol. While the references to extreme digestive distress are only oblique, however — no "plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is" jingle a la Alka Seltzer — the point is the timing of the ads.

While Pepto-Bismol ranks as one of P&G's highest-penetration brands, only 7 percent of consumers surveyed claimed to have used it over the last 12 months, according to the New York Times. So now, instead of advertising steadily throughout the year as Pepto-Bismol used to do, the company is taking a "pulsed marketing approach where we focus our spending and our efforts around times when we know people are celebrating," a spokeswoman told the Times.Continue reading...

Walmart is partnering with Nelly (yes, that Nelly) and DoSomething.org as part of the 2011 Tackle Hunger campaign this holiday season. The public is invited to participate at dosomething.org/tackle-hunger or by texting "HUNGER" to 38383 to get started.

Pepsi is at it again, showing how a mega-brand can make a major difference, even one nickel at a time.

According to World Hunger, last year some “17.2 million households, 14.5 percent of households (approximately one in seven), were food insecure, the highest number ever recorded in the United States.”

Partnering with 7-Eleven convenience stores nationwide, the beverage giant will donate five cents from each 20-oz. Pepsi product purchased at a 7-Eleven store, or, in a growing trend of slacktivism spurred by social media, they'll double the donation if it involves checking in using Facebook Places.Continue reading...

Last fall, a quartet of Hollywood actors — Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Ana Ortiz and Taye Diggs — donated their talents to promote Feeding America's work in keeping food flowing to more than 200 food banks.

Now ConAgra is also stepping up, expanding a commitment that began last year by increasing its donation, to up to 2.5 million meals, to Feeding America's child hunger program.Continue reading...

Just in time for Memorial Day weekend and the beginning of the backyard BBQ season in America, Oscar Mayer is offering more than the carnivorous scents of summer. The Kraft Foods brand is giving consumers a shot at what every true hot dog fan craves: a spin in the Wienermobile.

As part of its Good Mood Mission corporate social responsibility campaign, the Kraft Foods brand is giving everyone the opportunity to bid on eBay (go to eBay.com/OscarMayer) through next Friday for a "shot-bun" contest prize package that includes the use of the iconic vehicle for a day.

But wait, there's more! The winner will also receive a catered Oscar Mayer cookout for 50 (complete with a grill, cooler and other accessories) and a year’s supply of hot dogs. The company plans to direct proceeds of the auction to help Feeding America, a hunger-relief organization.Continue reading...

David Arquette is still better known in some quarters as husband to Courteney Cox and brother to Rosanna Arquette.

But he's also chairman of Feeding America’s Entertainment Council, where his Hollywood ties have helped attract his friends for a worthy cause.

Thanks to Arquette, stars including Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Rachael Ray, Mario Batali, Josh Groban, Ben Harper and Sheryl Crow and (of course) his wife Courteney are helping with the organization's goal of feeding the one in six Americans (49.1 million, including 16.7 million children) who do not have enough to eat on a daily basis.  

The oranization, formerly known as Second Harvest, is now gearing up for its single biggest day of the year, when Help Stamp Out Hunger returns on May 8th.Continue reading...