Archives for month: November, 2010

Sex Does not Sell for Charities

Posted by admin on November 15th, 2010 in Category Charities, Fun and Humor (no responses)

How embarrassing, I wonder if this was an inside job done purposely?  NFL fans never know what to expect from Chad Ochocinco but even they were probably surprised when dialing a number from a charity cereal box featuring the attention-seeking Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver and getting a phone-sex line.

A typo on the cereal box sent callers to a seductive-sounding woman instead of Feed The Children, a charity that benefits from Ochocinco’s limited edition toasted oats cereal, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on its website.

“You must be 18 or older to get into this party, baby,” the woman said before asking for a credit card number.

Callers should have dialed an 888 number instead of an 800 number, the newspaper said.

“I really do apologize,” Ochocinco told the Enquirer on Thursday. “Some people got a laugh out of it, others are upset.”

A spokesman for Feed The Children said the charity appeared to be at fault.

Ochocinco’s agent stressed the flamboyant receiver was in no way involved in the mistake.

A Cincinnati grocery chain began pulling the cereal boxes from its shelves on Thursday.

The cereal, which sells for $5 a box, can be found on the website www.plbsports.com.

“All boxes will be shipped with a corrected 800# on them,” a statement on the website said in capital letters.  No matter what this a great charity and we support them!

Controversial Idea for Charity to Promote

Posted by admin on November 1st, 2010 in Category Charities, World Charities (no responses)

An American charity is offering to pay British drug or alcohol addicts 200 pounds to be sterilised – and has already had its first taker. But the idea has been attacked in the UK as exploiting the vulnerable at their lowest ebb.

Project Prevention, which runs a similar scheme in the U.S. offering adults $300 to use long term or permanent birth control, aims to reduce the number of babies born with drug or alcohol addictions as a result of their parents’ habits.

Barbara Harris, who set up the charity after adopting the children of an addict, is offering to pay addicts in London, Glasgow, Bristol, Leicester and Wales who are willing not to have children.

“I get very angry about the damage that drugs do to these children,” she told the BBC’s Inside Out programme. “I’m not forcing people to be sterilised. I offer them a choice of contraception but people want to focus on the extremes.”

“The social workers and their like have done their best for years and it’s not good enough. I’m offering something different, and paying addicts for being responsible.”

The project, funded by donations from the public, has already had its first British client, a 38-year-old heroin addict who had been involved in drugs since he was 12.

“It was something that I had been thinking about for a long time,” the man, named only as John, told the BBC. “I won’t be able to support a kid: I can just about manage to support myself.”

But British drug and alcohol charity Addaction, which estimates around 1.3 million children under 16 have a parent with a serious drug or drink problem, criticised the idea as exploitative.

“It is an approach to an addict when they’re at their lowest possible ebb. It doesn’t deal with addicts who are already parents, it doesn’t help people recover, and it doesn’t offer any kind of positive solution,” said Addaction chief executive Simon Antrobus.

“We are also concerned that the cash that is being offered will end up in the hands of dealers, helping to perpetuate a problem that is damaging families and communities up and down the UK.” While both sides certainly have good points I am sure it will be public support one-way or another that will decide if this continues.