08 12 14 1327 PIC-0027.jpg, originally uploaded by Slack Barshinger.

I’m walking around downtown and of course had to stop in for some coffee products. Starbucks is a part of the nationwide RED campaign and has come out with signature drinks for the cause. They go one step further and ask you to email photos of yourself drinking a RED beverage.

There’s a similar, but more multimedia-focused, campaign in Chicago for the Olympic bid that asks you “Why Chicago?” when I find that I promise to snap it. But they ask for video, too, and I assume they are planning to submit it as part of the bid for 2016.

More and more folks are being used to engage with brands. I imagine these efforts as part of a trade show floor or maybe promoting a particular new product where an end-user might compete to win.