New York –
celebrated this week its ninth
annual charity gala, which was recently renamed Samsung Hope for Children,
bringing out a group of top celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony
and Matthew McConaughey in addition to some usual favorites.
The enhanced philanthropic initiative, which
replaces the Four Seasons of Hope program, is said to increase the company’s
cause-related marketing focus to have greater impact on the two areas most
affecting children: health and education.
Beginning in 2002,
Samsung started working with several elite athletes, including sport legends
Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Arnold Palmer, Eli Manning and NASCAR’s Jimmie
Johnson, in addition to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and many of
Samsung’s business and retail partners, to raise more than $25 million for more
than 300 schools, community-based foundations and charities throughout the U.S.
Samsung said it
decided to step up its charitable efforts after seeing recent studies showing
that one in five children in the United States suffer from a chronic illness,
ranging from asthma to cancer and developmental disabilities, and that 25
percent of secondary school kids cannot read or understand the material in
their textbooks.
“These statistics
prove that there are a large amount of today’s children who are going to be
less productive than they could be as adults and Samsung believes it can
continue to help make a difference,” the company said in a statement.
This year, Samsung
said it introduced the Dedicated to Wonder marketing campaign for all of its
consumer electronics products aiming to provide the wonder of Samsung products
to its customers.
The company said
it will use a similar strategy to take the existing charitable initiatives to
the next level and Share the Wonder with those who need it most.
The Samsung Hope
for Children program will “strategically focus its efforts on programs
dedicated to helping children live, learn, and thrive. This emphasizes
Samsung’s long-standing commitment of raising national awareness and funds for
deserving foundations, hospitals and schools that make a noticeable difference
in communities,” Samsung said.
In that spirit,
the company also unveiled a new visual brand identity and website:
“Samsung has been
at the forefront of actively addressing social issues in our communities by
improving technology in classrooms to partnering with sports, entertainment,
and political notables for over nine years,” said C.S. Choi, Samsung
Electronics America president and CEO. “Samsung Hope for Children will be a
natural extension of our corporate philanthropic initiatives by making an
investment in the future of one of our country’s most important assets – our
children.”
The event was
hosted by Regis Philbin and featured American actress, singer, record producer
and fashion designer Jennifer Lopez, and her husband, five-time Grammy Award-winning
singer and songwriter Marc Anthony.
Other celebrities
included Matthew McConaughey, who promoted the j.k. livin foundation – which
becomes part of Samsung’s education platform and is dedicated to helping
teenagers lead active lives and make healthy choices.
