You may have heard that an online war was raging this week. A war between kings: Larry King and Ashton "Twitter King" Kutcher.
Kutcher told King that he could amass 1,000,000 followers on Twitter before CNN could. He tweeted that if he did, he would donate 10,000 treated bednets to Malaria No More. Bednets prevent mosquitos--which spread malaria--from infecting people. It is such a simple way to prevent the disease.
Well, he did. During the run up to the big win (which happened today), Kutcher had been tweeting a great deal about malaria. As a consequence, other celebrities on Twitter have lent their support and are donating bednets:
CNNBrk - 10,000
Ryan Seacrest 10,000
Oprah - 20,000
At GSK we are committed to playing a significant role in improving the health of communities affected by malaria in three ways:
- Through on-going research--we have a new vaccine in development to prevent malaria
- With preferential pricing of our anti-malarials in the least developed countries and sub-Saharan Africa
- Through our community investment activities funded by the GSK African Malaria Partnership, founded in 2001 to improve the prevention and treatment of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.
Defeating this disease, which kills one million people each year, is no simple feat. It will require both collaboration and creativity, not to mention multiple interventions, like bednets and medical advances. This week we got to witness an interesting real-time case study of what celebrity and social media can do for the greater good.
Well done, Mr. Kutcher.
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