Monday, December 04, 2006

In the Mainstream

The concept of paying it forward has gotten some major press lately. Oprah did her greatest giveaway ever and had 300+ people perform random acts of kindness with $1000 cash cards. Some people leveraged that money into hundreds of thousands of dollars for people in need. Check out some of the videos if you have the time.

The other shocking pay-it-forward story is coming from none other than Starbuck's Coffee. They are handing out Cheer Passes and encouraging people to perform random acts of kindness this holiday season and share their stories. The started the campaign by giving away metro passes in NYC, movie passes in Chicago, and other acts of generosity in cities around the country. If a company is going to spend a lot of money on an ad campaign, why not have it revolve around generosity so it has a greater impact.