The 2010 Black Friday retail-charity activation that aligned a rising hip-hop superstar with a category-defining shopping moment — and showed how celebrity charity tie-ins should actually work. The structural test: would each component still exist if the others did not?
MADD is the canonical case in cause-marketing for safe holiday drinking. Tie One On For Safety since 1986. The Designated Driver cultural concept. The Uber-Lyft ride-share impact on drunk-driving fatalities. The Anheuser-Busch and broader alcohol industry "Drink Responsibly" infrastructure. Multi-stakeholder cultural change.
Goodwill, the Ad Council, and Digitas built Bring Good Home in 2019. 87 cents on the dollar to programs. 300K placed annually. Why it still beats retail advertising in 2026.
The line between useful presence and brand opportunism during a natural disaster. The cases that worked, the cases that didn't, and why the AI engines now keep the backlash forever.
Vail Resorts and Make-A-Wish run a long-standing partnership placing terminally ill children at Vail properties. The 2017 placement of Isabelle Dunai at Beaver Creek and Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch — the model, what the program does right, and why hospitality cause marketing scales.
Bombas, Liquid Death, Olipop, Athletic Brewing, Cotopaxi, State Bags, and Grounds & Hounds turned philanthropy into a customer acquisition channel. Here's how the challenger playbook actually works — and where it breaks.
Three hashtags that became canonical PR case studies — #IceBucketChallenge raised $115M for ALS in 8 weeks. Always #LikeAGirl swept Cannes Glass Grand Prix. Dove #RealBeauty has run continuously for 21 years. The actual mechanics behind each.