Studio Center, a full-service audio and video production company (that we used to create our award-winning WAVE Transit jungle), knows how to have a good time. I received an email today with a looping animated message announcing it’s 2nd Annual “Costume Contest for Charity”. The company is inviting its clients to submit photos of themselves decked out in their Halloween costume by end of business tomorrow. The top three winners will have a donation made in their name to the charity of their choice. What a great way to have fun with a holiday and make a difference in the lives of their customers and charities alike.

Too bad I didn’t know about this last year. My husband and I as Axl and Slash (respectively) from Guns N Roses, just might have won $500 for a cause we love.

Or at least a deal for 2 decades. The outdoor advertising company, Fuel, donated 600 solar-powered bus shelters to Miami in exchange for a 20 year-exclusive advertising deal. Not only is the company helping out the citizens of the city by giving them lighted shelter while they wait for public transportation, it also secured prime advertising real estate for its clients.

When environmental marketing firm, TerraChoice , evaluated the green advertising claims of products in a large retail store last year, they discovered that only one out of more than one thousand items actually lived up to its eco-friendly name. This term is known as “greenwashing”, or misleading marketing about the environmental benefits of a product, and more companies employ this tactic than you might have imagined.

For many of the eco-friendly products on the market, the only thing “green” about them is the cash consumers shell out for them.   So, how can you tell which products are the real deal?  Enviromedia , a social marketing firm in Austin, Texas, launched the Greenwashing Index , a website where consumers can post ads that they believe are examples of greenwashing.  The ads are rated on a scale of 1 to 5-1 being a little green and 5 being an outright lie.  Consumers can easily determine if a car manufacturer really does earn most of its revenue on the fuel-efficient hybrids they boast or their gas-guzzling SUVs.

TerraChoice has also posted the “six sins of greenwashing” on their website, signs that will warn consumers that a company is more interested in making a profit off the earth than helping to save it.  If you’re not sure if a product you’re using is as environmentally friendly as it boasts, either website is a great tool to determine the truth about what you’re buying.

The threat of losing the world’s honeybees has been a big topic in the news the past few years. Our bees are disappearing at an alarming rate, and no one seems to know why.

The ice cream maker Haagan-Dazs is taking a stand. As a company that uses all-natural ingredients in its recipes, “bee pollination is essential in nearly 40% [their] super-premium flavors.” Due to this high percentage, Haagan-Dazs is donating money to help fund bee research. For every pint of “bee-dependent” flavor the ice cream giant sells, they are donating a portion of the proceeds to research programs at Pennsylvania State University and University of California at Davis.

The ice creamery has landscaped its offices and manufacturing sites with glory bushes, jasmine and rosemary to entice bees to pollinate. It also encourages its employees to plant bee-friendly flowers and bushes in their yards by supplying them with free flower seeds. To find out more about the crisis and what you can do to help, visit http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/. While there, you can also create your own bee personality and buy Haagen-Dazs loves Honey Bees gear.

There are a couple tried and true ways to garner guaranteed publicity for your company, one of which is taking advantage of a holiday. If your company has any tie to a Fourth of July theme or you plan on hosting a patriotic promotion of some sort, now is the time to call your local paper. Of course, this may not apply to every company, because every company probably doesn’t have a great story idea to tie into the Fourth of July.

One Chicago pizzeria did.

Retired Air Force Sgt. Mark Evans is sending 3,000 Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria deep-dish pizzas to troops in Iraq to enjoy on the Fourth of July. He got the idea when his 16-year old son asked if U.S. soldiers in the Middle East were able to enjoy this famous Chicago fare. So Lou Malnati’s agreed to make 300 pizzas at a special rate. Before he knew it, Evans raised enough money to send thousands.

The unintended result for Lou Malnati’s? More than 160 Google News hits as of today in some of the world’s largest media outlets. Another beneficiary of Evans’ altruism is DHL Global, which showed some savvy by volunteering to ship as many pizzas as Evans raised money to send. They popped up in nearly 150 Google News articles today.

This goes to show that “doing the right thing” and taking advantage of current events, like holidays, is a powerful combined strategy to get noticed by the media.

Editorial Note: Anyone interested in contributing to the “Pizzas 4 Patriots” project can write Mark Evans at sgtevans@sbcglobal.net.

No one can deny that China is an economic force to reckon. Its 1.3 billion consumers are exposed to a constant advertising barrage, courtesy of the biggest brands in the world.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the recent life-altering earthquake that hit the country caused top companies like Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble changed their marketing game plan. Exercising sensitivity, they instantly pulled ads from the public eye. Ad spending nationwide plunged 33 percent.

As time goes on, the same companies question exactly how and when to start advertising again. The issue becomes more convoluted as the country is on the heels of the Beijing Olympic Games in August.  The Olympics was China’s golden opportunity to reap the economic benefits of the tourism frenzy that will ensue.

This conflict of conscience does present the opportunity to use their company resources to aid the broken country.  Coca-Cola, for example, sent out 10 trucks with clean drinking water to help those in need during the tragic aftershock,  all the while doing nothing to draw attention to its efforts. Still, the community took notice.

On one of China’s video-sharing sites, an individual outside of the company posted a clip of clean drinking water Coke trucks driving down the highway. 26,000 views counted and growing.  The result is increased global awareness of Coca-Cola’s work as an extraordinary corporate citizen.

This only goes to show that companies’ first responsibility ought to be redirecting advertising dollars to help a country in peril heal from a natural disaster. Coke was right to recognize that providing help to the billions of consumers in need is the number one priority right now.  Benefits from their sense of altruism will surely build its brand even stronger in the future.