December 6, 2010; Source: hollyscoop.com | Celebrity followers tweeted with relief yesterday, when Alicia Keys’ “digital death” campaign reached its fundraising goal after just six days in operation. The concept, which required the truly famous (and the famous-for-being-famous) to let their online personas go silent until their fans contributed $1 million to Keep a Child Alive’s AIDS research.
Unfortunately, it seems the stars overestimated their power over their fans. The campaign started very slowly, raising a mere $300,000, and it required pharmaceutical tycoon and billionaire Stewart Rahr’s match of $500,000 to put the total within reach of the campaign’s goal.
One wonders how it would have turned out if contributors could donate money to extend the time that celebrities were offline. I guess we’ll never know.—Timothy Lyster
