Way back in 1785, the poet Robert Burns wrote: "The best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry."

 

The folks at Virgin Mobile USA certainly learned that lesson in July when controversy hit Strip2Clothe, a campaign designed to generate attention for the cellular service and donations of clothing for homeless teens.

 

Virgin anticipated Strip2Clothe would shake things up when it offered to donate one article of clothing for each strip-tease video that consumers sent in or for each five video viewings.  (Virgin limited participation to those over 18 and had a veto over posting videos that were too salacious.)

 

What it didn't anticipate was the discomfort the campaign would create for some of the nonprofit groups it partners with.  Soon after the campaign launched in July, Virgin found itself busy fending off criticism in the media and the blogosphere.

 

As reported in The Wall Street Journal, the company proved nimble in quickly deciding to reposition the program.  Within two weeks, Strip2Clothe had been replaced by BLANK2Clothe, which invites consumers to send in a video of themselves doing something (yodeling, walking on hands, wrestling, etc.) to generate a donation.  National Network for Youth was so pleased with the change that it issued a statement of support for Virgin 8 days after issuing an earlier statement distancing itself from the campaign.

 

Looking back, Virgin Mobile USA CMO Bob Stohrer told me that "Virgin Mobile USA is known for being provocative, and accepted the controversy as long as the important issue of youth homelessness shared in the spotlight.  We learned that what we do for company advertising, however, may not always be appropriate for our non-profit partners.  We are also a company that listens and decided it was time to take the campaign to another level.  We are thankful to those who supported the program as well as the critics.  Mostly, we are proud of the overall RE*Generation program we've been promoting for two years, and all that it has achieved" in combatting child homelessness.

 

Kudos to Virgin for turning around a difficult situation -- and for developing a program that has generated over 95,000 contributions through video contributions, video viewings and texting.

 

David Hessekiel

President

Cause Marketing Forum, Inc.