TAKE 5; ENTER CAUSE CELEB; BRINGING NOTABLE ENDEAVORS, CELEBRITIES TOGETHER FOR RESULTS.Butt-kickin', karate-choppin', ponytail-wearin', monosyllabic-dialogue-gruntin' actor Steven Seagal doesn't seem the sensitive sort to enlighten the public on the benefits of recycling. But when the California Department of Conservation The California Department of Conservation provides services and information that promote environmental health, economic vitality, informed land use decisions and sound management of California's natural resources. needed a celebrity to bring attention to its recycling campaign, a green light went off in the head of public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most entrepreneur Stuart Greenbaum. Seagal, it seems, has long championed environmental causes, as fans of ``On Deadly Ground,'' a movie combining the unlikely elements of martial-arts action and a pro-green message, are quite aware. So Greenbaum hooked up the agency and the star. The result? Seagal hosted the department's annual Earth Day Conservation Fair in Sacramento, drawing some 50,000 people to the steps of the State Capitol. Buoyed by that success and a host of others, Greenbaum has launched Cause Celeb ce·leb n. Informal A celebrity. , a specialty division of Greenbaum Public Relations dedicated to matching causes with celebrities. Cause Celeb serves two purposes, according to Greenbaum: It finds faces for organizations without the resources or know-how to make those connections on their own, and it helps celebrities wade through requests from nonprofits. ``They get literally hundreds of offers every month,'' says Greenbaum. Cause Celeb helps the Hollywood glitterati glit·te·ra·ti pl.n. Informal Highly fashionable celebrities; the smart set: "private parties on Park Avenue and Central Park West, where the literati mingled with glitterati" winnow See chaff and winnow. down the avalanche of pleas. ``They can tell us which issues or causes interest them, and we can connect them with the best causes.'' And screen out fly-by-night or flaky flaky - (Or "flakey") Subject to frequent lossage. This use is of course related to the common slang use of the word to describe a person as eccentric, crazy, or just unreliable. organizations. Other notable Greenbaum connections: The Walt Disney Co. and Keep California Beautiful's Youth Recycling Education campaign; former New York Yankee Dave Winfield at the U.S. Department of Education; and actor LeVar Burton and the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (or OJJDP) is an office of the United States Department of Justice and a component of the Office of Justice Programs. . What does Cause Celeb get out of it? Nothing for making the connection, says Greenbaum. But once the connection is made, Greenbaum's company goes to work creating a public relations campaign, for which it is paid. ``Our strategy is for us to find the organizations that have the resources to put together a campaign so that celebrity support becomes known to the public.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Steven Seagal hosted the California Department of Conservation's annual Earth Day Conservation Fair in Sacramento. |
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