Has anyone else noticed that Africa has become all the rage in the social marketing space? In addition to the big brand (GAP, Motorola, Converse, etc.) and celebrity-driven Red product line, which I blogged about last week, there is this whole "I am African Campaign," (scroll to image of Iman) which of course Gawker mercilessly makes fun of. I mentioned MySpace's Rock for Darfur effort last week -- the AP now has the story. Jay-Z and the UN are teaming up with MTV to raise awareness about the world's water crisis (the trip was inspired by Jay-Z's trip to Africa).

And today, Ypulse reader Dave over at Beinggirl.com, shared their very cool promotion of HERO, "a program where 11 teens took a month of their summer vacation to travel to Africa to build schools and help AIDS ravaged communities." They are posting webisodes from the trip...Dave says the goal is "is to actively engage teens who are 'global thinkers' and get them involved with HERO on a local level." Dave also says "there will also be the chance in the coming months for a teen to go on the trip next year courtesy of beinggirl (details TBD)."

I think all of this is great -- although I would also love to see a commercially-driven campaign for the victims of Hurricane Katrina (many of whom are African American) who have pretty much been forgotten....

Posted by anastasia