Back in August, we covered the launch of TwitCause, a service not unlike Causes on Facebook, only built on top of Twitter. Basically, they find a cause to support (partially based on community feedback) and use Twitter to drive awareness for it. They also ask that you donate some money if you find the cause worthy. But today brings a new little twist: A sponsor willing to pay for any Twitter user who tweet out their support for a cause. Ice cream maker Häagen-Dazs has stepped up to do this to try and save honeybees.
Perhaps you’ve heard the stories over the past several years about honeybees mysteriously vanishing around the world in large numbers. The root cause is believed to be something called Colony Collapse Disorder, which causes bees to stray from their hives and die. This is bad news since honeybees are vital to pollinating a lot of different types of foods we eat. They’re also vital to making ice cream, which is why Häagen-Dazs is supporting this TwitCause.
Starting today and running through November 11, Häagen-Dazs will pay $1 for the first 500 people that tweet everyday with the hashtag #HelpHoneyBees. The money will go towards both a UC Davis research project to further look into Colony Collapse Disorder, as well as help fund the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, which aims to teach people about how to create their own honeybee farms.
[photo: flickr/cygnus921]
Starting today and running through November 11, Häagen-Dazs will pay $1 for the first 500 people that tweet everyday with the hashtag #HelpHoneyBees.
so $500?
LOL..
more like $3,500, but whose really counting, it’s about supporting an important cause.
“Whose” really counting? “People that tweet everyday”?
It’s absolutely pathetic that hundreds of thousands of people read your articles and they’re still filled with elementary-school grammar and spelling errors. You remind me of the 12-year-olds that fill anime message boards, except you’re what, 30?
also, just like previously, it would seem to be more about raising awareness, and of course you’re free to donate on your own.
Still, $3500 is an embarrassing amount. It seems like Häagen-Dazs is piggybacking on a very serious problem in order to further their branding. It’s kind of pathetic. If we lose the bees, the ag industry will suffer greatly.
they also have the Honey flavored ice cream of which a portion of the proceeds goes to honeybees, have raised awareness through fund raisers, but that’s besides the point why isn’t this one untested fund raiser method bigger right? This is a good thing, let it be.
oh wow.. audi anounced this to the class (retard!)
did you really say retard? It’s a slur which demeans people with special needs. I’m guessing that since you use it as part of your name you have real issues with hurting others, especially the most vulnerable among us. Doesn’t that put you in the bully category?
+1
Pretty deep Biology lessons in a tech blog…
… “honeybees ‘mysteriously’ vanishing around the world?”
… “Colony Collapse Disorder?”
Honeybees have been dying of a viral infection. Duh!
This is typical of intellectual lazyness, which leads to the spreading of misinformation.
Go the extra [necessary] mile and do some research. Please.
Amazing add campaign for $ 3,500 aswell…
Agricultural industry in trouble? More like everyone. Bees pollinate 1/3 of our crops. If they go, we are going to be in big trouble.
A minor correction to “The root cause is believed to be something called Colony Collapse Disorder” : Colony Collapse Disorder is simply the *term* for the phenomenon. The root cause is still being debated.
“The real cause” is a viral infection, as mentioned on another post.
Entomologists that keep up with research already know this. Unfortunately, there is not much we could do at this time.
Wait … $3500? Sure you got that right, even advertising execs would surely see the backlash this is going to make…. :S
This is pretty lame. $3500?
What sort of research will that buy? A few bee keeper suits? LOL
+1
Ha ha it’s interesting that Haagen Dasz is doing it from a profit perspective
I think ther should in general be some kind of think tank taht aligns companies with environmental issues and then the $ starts coming
By the way what about killer bees — maybe they are kiling the honeybees?
It’s not the money that is important in this campaign. $3500 is nothing. It’s the publicity and the awareness. Imagine all those people twittering about saving honey bees. Even if they only ask for 500, a lot more people are going to retweet it. The tweets themselves will be worth a lot. The money is just to stimulate the tweeting.
A good cause. A good medium.
Slightly off-topic, there is an article on organic bees avoiding/surviving the CCD crisis. http://www.cels...se-disorder-cc/