Watch Out!
Michael Kors ups fight against world hunger with watch, website, billboards
Designer Michael Kors has kicked his fight against world hunger into top gear this month with a number of activities to raise awareness and cash for the cause.
Kors stores in the Houston area are featuring the 100 Series watch ($295), in two styles for men and women, created to aid the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) school meals program. For each watch sold, 100 children in a hunger-stricken area receive a nutritious meal.
Since the watch debuted last spring, more than one and a half million meals have been distributed to hungry children. Throughout the month of October, customers can add a $5, $10 or $25 donation to the WFP when purchasing an item at a Kors store to further support the program.
"I'm a results-oriented person, and this is a problem we can affect," Kors said.
On Wednesday (Oct. 16), World Food Day, Kors teams in New York, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Hong Kong will give away Watch Hunger Stop T-shirts. In each of the cities, the T-shirt recipients can then enter the Kors store, enter a photo booth and have their picture taken. Kors hopes to attract up to 20,000 images, which will be livestreamed on a dozen billboards in Times Square and on the Kors microsite, WatchHungerStop.com.
Also on Wednesday, Kors and Vogue editor Anna Wintour will present the first Michael Kors Award for Outstanding Community Service to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the annual God’s Love We Deliver Golden Heart Awards Dinner in New York.
Kors told the Associated Press that his company is flourishing, with a successful IPO in 2011 and earnings that nearly tripled in the last fiscal year, so it's time for the company's philanthropic efforts to grow, too. "I'm a results-oriented person, and this is a problem we can affect," he said.