A couple months ago, we wrote about the site Blame Drew’s Cancer, which was hoping to utilize the Twitter phenomenon, and specifically the hashtagging of tweets, to raise both money and awareness for cancer. It has already garnered the support of Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG foundation, and now it has a new big-time player aboard to sponsor some tweets: 23andMe.
The genetic testing startup has agreed to donate $1 for each of the first 500 unique tweets that use the hastags #blamedrewscancer and #23andMe. These tweets will start counting after the site reaches its 10,000 person who has tweeted for the cause, which will be sometime tonight. The money will go towards the LIVESTRONG foundation for cancer research.
23andMe is also donating 5 of its new $99 research kits, to be raffled away to Blame Drew’s Cancer followers, also to benefit the LIVESTRONG foundation. Along with that, 23andMe is donating a kit to the namesake of Blame Drew’s Cancer, Drew Olanoff, to add his results to their Research Revolution project. And soon you’ll be able to buy the $99 kits through the Blame Drew’s Cancer site, with $5 of each sale going to LIVESTRONG, Olanoff tells us.
In addition to all of that, 23andMe has agreed to be the main sponsor of Olanoff’s 24-hour Blame-a-thon happening on 9-9-09, and being streamed live to the web.
This is another example of Twitter being used for charitable purposes. Last week, we wrote about TwitCause, a service that wants to spread the word about various good causes on Twitter — much like Causes does on Facebook and MySpace. BlameDrewsCancer is taking more of a grassroots approach, but it appears to be working.
Watch Olanoff in the video below.
Thank you for the support MG. Right before this went up I got off of the phone with a girl in Arizona named Leah who didn’t understand why you’d want to blame someones cancer. It sounded negative. I explained and she understood. That girl was 14, and she walks for breast cancer, and she does more than her part. It’s people who inspire me daily. <3
you bet Drew. nice story.
Drew, I blame your cancer for reading TechCrunch everyday. Your cancer sucks. But you are an inspiration. Keep up the awesomeness. ^_^
nothing to see here folks. just the weekly 23andme article from techcrunch.
this is why it pays to have blogger friends, theyll advertise you no matter how irrelevant you are to their blog
Except that this story *is* relevant to this blog. Whether or not you like it, TechCrunch covers Twitter, and companies using Twitter in unique ways, as part of its regular beat.
Drew launched a successful and creative campaign on Twitter to raise awareness for cancer – a disease he is currently battling. That campaign captured the imagination of the Livestrong foundation (among many individuals).
Now, 23andMe steps up and offers a donation to help add a fresh new angle to this very cool Twitter campaign. Admittedly, the amount is questionable at best, but what’s important is BlameDrewsCancer, not 23andMe. If they get a little free publicity out of it, so be it. The greater good calls.
i don’t think this is a case of twitter being used for the greater good. this is a case of a desperate startup wasting cash on the equivalent of a pay-per-post scheme. there’s already enough crap on twitter. do we really need more tagged with blamedrewscancer or 23andme?
Good luck.
First off, credit to Drew and what he’s trying to do. This comment isn’t really about that.
To recap, 23andMe are donating $500 and a few kits. And they’re getting a reseller to a targeted audience, 500 mentions in Twitter plus an article on TechCrunch. As well as apparently being considered great guys.
Didn’t you slate Msft just couple of months ago for something which will raise a huge amount of money for those in need because you thought it was a gimmick ?
And this isn’t ?
No, this isn’t.
What is the value of a “tweet”? 23andMe just told you they feel it’s $1 for a good cause.
Would love to talk to you on the phone some time about your thoughts. My # is (623)BLAMEIT.
Still, $500 is far less than your cause deserves from a company like 23andMe. I blame your cancer.
Keep up the great work Drew! You’re an inspiration.
It’s not about a dollar amount, it’s about building a relationship with a company who is doing things to put your health into your hands. It’s a step, and they took it with us.
And thank you for the support Derry. You ain’t seen nuttin yet.
Well in that case I’m looking forward to seeing more!
Well 23andMe told you it is $1 with an upper bound of $500 and and that they will count these after the total number of people tweeting hits 10000.
Taking the case in which every person tweeting does a single tweet, they placed the value of a single tweet = $500/10000 = $0.05. And this is best case value of a tweet
The comment is about 23andMe and not on Drew and his crew. You guys are doing great work!
Hector, what we’re doing is taking each blame with an additional hashtag of #23andMe and moving forward. It’s a step in the right direction. LIVESTRONG benefits, and more importantly the word cancer is being said freely and openly. That is priceless. We must beat this.
I #blamedrewscancer for wordpress.com CSS being down #23andMe
I am just trying to understand this…. so after 10 000 tweets with #blamedrewscancer and #23andMe the next 500 cause 23 and me to donate $500 plus $500 worth of goods and $5 of every unit sold? Sorry I am canadian and trying to understand this.
Up to $500, 23andMe will give $1 per tweet if you add on the hashtag #23andMe to your cancer blame
They will be giving that to LIVESTRONG.
this is a great article.
Hey! All you guys bickering about the terms of a gift and ignoring the fact that in the end this is about helping people – here is a link to the Livestrong foundation – http://www.livestrong.org
If you really want to help instead of creating noise, go donate $5 like I just did.
Hey Joe thats correct if you intentions are good then for donating JUST $500 you wont create such a noise ..ya if you donating 5 million then I agree you can.Very cheap move by 23andme ……….sucks
“#23andme #blamedrewscancer” seems like an awful lot of real-estate for a tweet, especially if you want to actually say something in the same post.
Any chance they’d be willing to follow a combined hashtag? Ideas-
#drewscancerandme
#blame23 (ok, that one will never fly)
#drewand23
#drew23andme
OMG $500!! How in the world can they afford such an expense? Even if it does deliver tens of thousands of dollars of publicity…..
What great guys lol.
lol… yah that is what I thought… if they had just donated the money it cost to have the blimpe.. but it is smart marketing on there part.. give them credit for it.. TC bit..
I will try to support the effort from my site tooo.
Will ask all my users to support the cause.
Well to be honest i don’t consider this kind of thing as donation to research. Just $500 …what the heck. Nice marketing by playing with people emotions….good thinking .
I think you skipped the part saying they’re the sponsor for our 9/9/09 event which will be raising money for LIVESTRONG live and in person, as well as being streamed on the web. Events, even bootstrapped, are not cheap.
This is more of a scam than a donation.
You’re completely missing the point and I would love to fill you in on why, my # is (623)BLAMEIT.
MG, please follow up on this story at an appropriate time and report
1. Exactly what was donated to the cancer charity
2. If the charity would have received more by people giving in a more tax efficient way
3. The value of the PR to the companies involved, otherwise this whole exercise is PR, your story included.
There are other companies making money from charity tweets and I followed up on one to find out how much the charity involved had raised and it had received nothing, but the angel investor funded tech start up had been featured in national newspapers and since it also had a purely commercial version of its affiliate link shortening service for Twitter (spam) I concluded the exercise was not charity, it was marketing.
What I failed to find out was the name of the commercial url shortener because although the company was featured in the national press talking about the charity url shortener it was very careful not to say the name of the commercial version either in PR, anywhere on its website, anywhere in public. I was unable to find out what it was. As I understand it if you looked at the name of a url shortener on twitter and by its name knew it was a commercial affiliate link this would be helpful if you were using twitter for real conversations, not sponsored conversations, and tihs was the reason the company had such a different approach to talking about the names of their two services.
I look forward to your follow up.
CIS – I’m volunteering with Drew on #BlameDrewsCancer, and I want to thank you for making a valuable comment that tempers skepticism with solid reasons.
Your story sounds like it was more spam, scam, and marketing than it was charity, and I’d hate to think I am volunteering to duplicate that result. I absolutely want to be able to answer all three of your questions after the 9/9/09 fundraising event for LiveStrong. If Drew’s team in Philly is volunteering our time effectively, and if both 23andMe and #BDC are being accountable in this process, the result should be a measurable increase in fundraising and awareness for LiveStrong, as well as an intangible gain of allowing people to talk about cancer – whether it’s irreverently with a blame, or seriously with family and friends.
Charity is absolutely sacrifice, and Drew’s battle against cancer is inspiring an ever-widening circle of people to sacrifice their time, money, and voice on the behalf of his cause. On a personal note, I got involved not because of the impact cancer has had on my life, but because of the impact my life can have on cancer. That’s the sacrifice I am making (time, sleep, nights out playing my music, seeing my wife), and there’s absolutely value in that beyond PR. If I thought I could raise more money and awareness by using the equivalent time to work a second job and donate my pay to LiveStrong in Drew’s name I would do that instead.
I know one of Drew’s goals is to find a company that will donate $1 for every time anyone blames cancer on Twitter. Even though $500 is a relatively small amount, I’m still proud that 23andMe is taking that first step.
I too look forward to the follow-up post you’re asking for. If MG doesn’t make it I’d love to write it myself.
Best – P
I should have said that for Mr Olanoff this is charity since he is making a sacrifice. He has sacrificed his well being.
Thanks MG for posting this article and getting the word out. To me, technology used in this fashion is one of the primary reasons to continue to innovate and move forward with ideas and research. The ability to help others through services such as Twitter, 23andMe, and others is inspriational and helps to get the attention that it deserves. Kudos!
As for those who think that $500 is an insulting amount for the cause, I disagree. Although more money would/could possibly help with the research and cure for Drew and other people who suffer from cancer, it’s not always about the $$, but about awareness. Every little bit helps. Just by getting this story posted has helped to make people aware and many of those have already donated. Thumbs up to that.
Thank you. You totally get it. This is a step.
Problem is, 23andme is pseudoscience. Anyone who claims they can calculate your percent chance of contracting a disease based solely on genetic makeup is bogus. It is too bad they are using a serious case of cancer as a marketing gimmick. Heart goes out to you Drew, btu the 23andme marketing gimmick stinks. I just hope it works and a lot of money is raised. So nice of them to donate a whole whopping $500. That in itself proves it is a marketing gimmick.
I think you are completely missing the point. But thank you for sharing your opinion.
Are you a geneticist? Are you a MD? If not, how can you claim that no one can calculate the percent chance of contracting a disease based solely on genetic makeup? That statement is inherently false. Diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis, Tay Sachs, Sickle Cell Anemia – and even multifactorial diseases like Alzheimer’s and Macular Degen. can ALL be calculated using purely genetic information. Get your facts straight by getting a PhD in Genetics or an MD before you call something in the Medical Genetics field bogus.
The cause is great – drew and teams deserves everything they get…nobody is down on that. Its the fact that 23andme is donating $500 bucks – thats a joke relative to the press. I guess props to them for riding the coattails of a great cause…I just personally would feel guilty to tag along for such a small amount. oh well.
*sigh*
I don’t want to sound like a pedent but I have to admit I don’t get it.
Ok, it’s about awareness. Now everyone knows the hashtag #blamedrewscancer and perhaps even the work of the LIVESTRONG charity.
Drew, perhaps it’s worth explaining to people why this exposure is useful, cos I don’t get it. I know what cancer is, hell it’s touched my life too. And I can see why $$ to a cause is useful.
But for me the disconnect is what exactly creating a load of non-monetized buzz around cancer is actually achieving. I’m sure it’s something, I just don’t know what it is – and no one is explaining. You’re expecting people to just “get it”, and I’m not ashamed to admit publicly that I don’t get what it is.
Also, I gotta take this opportunity to say that it’s disgusting for 23&Me to donate a as little as $500 — and even more so with the arbitrary “after 10,000 existing tweets” nonsense.
Those of us in the business can put a price on the exposure *for them* that they’re getting and we can see it’s a lot more than $500 (plus that’s totally tax deductible to them if it’s going to a 501(c) tax-exempt charity).
They have a sponsorship on the silicon valley blimp at the moment. To me, offering to have #blamedrewscancer on one side would be a true gesture of offering exposure to the cause IMHO.
I think its is a great idea to bring awareness to cancer. 23andme just needs to drive down the costs of its genetic screening tests and more people will use it.