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...

New York City’s Citi Bike bike share program is finally ready to launch, with 6,000 bikes and 330 docking stations spreading in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but plenty of New Yorkers have already found something to complain about. 

The just-placed docking stations are causing parking and delivery problems for residents and business owners. According to CBS Local, drivers are being forced to stall their vehicles in no standing zones while others have noted that the docking stations block loading docks and drop-off points. “I don’t know how we’re going to be able to operate really now effectively. It’s sad, dramatic negative impact,” Carlo Giurdanella, owner of Bella Tile told CBS. 

'Installation frustration' is just the beginning of the gripes that city-dwellers have with the bike share program. It's been noted that the Citi Bike rules include a statement about overweight riders, effectively banning persons over 260 pounds from using the bicycles. Appalled by the statement, many are calling the program discriminatory and the rules unfounded.Continue reading...

When you’re as big a star as Beyonce, you can pick and choose your gigs, and that includes what causes you lend your money (and fame) to. 

The star's latest philanthropic engagement is with Goodwill. The charity will collect donations at stops on Beyonce's Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, with proceeds from the sale of the items going towards Goodwill efforts to help unfortunate individuals find jobs. In further collaboration with CharityBuzz.com, ticket packages to the tour will be auctioned, with all proceeds going to Goodwill. 

Earlier this month, Bey partnered with mom Tina Knowles and sister Solange for an initiative called "Miss A Meal," where the family called on others to miss a meal and donate the money to charity. In February, Beyonce joined Salma Hayek Pinault and Frida Giannini to promote Chime For Change, an organization founded by Gucci to promote education, health and justice for girls and women around the world.

In the past, Beyonce has co-founded the Survivor Foundation to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, holding food drives during her 2006 tour. In 2005, her ambassadorship for World Children’s Day led to the release of “Stand Up For Love,” the anthem for the annual event to raise awareness and funds for children’s causes. She has supported 23 charities and foundations in all.Continue reading...

As part of its "Better World" corporate citizenship commitment, Nike is working with some of America's brightest governmental minds on an initiative to create more sustainable materials. 

Founded in 2010, LAUNCH is a strategic collaboration between NASA, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the US State Department and Nike to seek out visionaries whose ideas and technologies can create a more sustainable world. 

This week, Nike convened 150 materials specialists, designers, academics, manufacturers, entrepreneurs and NGOs in green manufacturing at the two-day LAUNCH 2020 Summit, part of a multi-year incubation process. 

“Innovation is most powerful when it’s activated by collaboration between unlikely partners, coupled with investment dollars, marketing know-how and determination.” said Nike President and CEO Mark Parker. “Now is the time for big, bold solutions. Incremental change won’t get us where we need to go fast enough or at a scale that makes a difference.”

To propel the innovation, Nike is sponsoring the LAUNCH Systems Innovation Challenge, which is an open call competition for innovative ideas and processes to transform the way fabrics are made. The challenge will result in 10 product innovations which will be matched up with a team of investors and marketers to aid in the manufacturing process.Continue reading...

In recognition of World Malaria Day and the more than 660,000 people that still die from the deadly but preventable disease, Novartis and Malaria No More have partnered for a unique campaign that will provide malaria treatments to those infected in Africa.

Over the next three years, Novartis, joined by diagnostic testing company Alere Inc., will donate up to three million courses of pediatric antimalarial drug, matching the number of treatments donated by the public through the Power of One campaign.

“We believe that this innovative campaign will help speed malaria elimination,” said Joseph Jimenez, Novartis CEO in a press release. “Novartis has been striving towards this goal for more than a decade, and we just reached the milestone of providing 600 million treatments without profit to patients in malaria-endemic countries. No one should die from malaria today.”Continue reading...

Sometimes a brand blazes a trail, only to find itself outrun by the competition. 

Back in 2006, entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie, who made his name and a small fortune as a contestant on reality TV show, The Amazing Race, came up with a unique proposition for a new brand, TOMS Shoes. The business model: TOMS would donate a pair of shoes to a child who lived in poverty for every pair of shoes sold. The philanthropic concept quickly became a sensation that catapulted the company's brand awareness to superstar status.

Not surprisingly, other companies started to knock off the idea. The most egregious copycat has been a line of shoes called "BOBS" that Skechers introduced in 2010. BOBS not only look exactly like TOMS signature shoe, right down to the logo stitched on a visible exterior label, but Skechers also shamelessly followed TOMS' "one-for-one" model of giving away a pair of shoes for every pair sold.Continue reading...

When many people think of actor Matthew McConaughey, it isn’t his work in such films as Boys on the Side, Dazed and Confused and Magic Mike that comes to mind, but rather his penchant for being half-naked all the time. After all, the actor was hauled away in 1999 for resisting arrest after officers came to his Austin, Texas home to deal with complaints of him loudly playing bongo drums while nude.

These days, though, it looks like McConaughey has found some motivation for keeping his shirt on. He has partnered with Canadian apparel manufacturer Grand National Apparel—manufacturer of Perry Ellis, Pacific Trail and Savane—to launch his own active sportswear collection, JKL. While the duds will be available on JKL’s site, consumers can also find them at Dillard’s stores and dillards.com.Continue reading...

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday, many took to social media to help locate loved ones and confirm safety, while brands spoke out, offering consoling thoughts along with offers of free services and aid to victims and locals affected by the attack — and then retreated to the sidelines, cancelling promoted tweets and Facebook status updates unless they could be of service.

In that vein, Google quickly developed a Boston version of its Person Finder tool, while JetBlue, Airbnb and other brands and businesses (big and small) that could help the distressed and stranded sprang into action. For some, like Adidas, sponsorship of the event led to an unfortunate juxtaposition with terror, as the brand's logo and "All In" tagline was featured at the finish line, and thus the front page of the Boston Globe.

Ford's head of social media, Scott Monty, tweeted some advice to brands for those unsure of how to respond—but sadly, with horrific events becoming more frequent these days, marketers are getting more adept at what to do (and more importantly, what not to do).Continue reading...