Good deeds and good Samaritans

There are those grinches out there who believe that a good deed, if done or encouraged by a corporation, is not a good deed at all. Shame on them. Only those who truly help the poor and give to charities anonymously can be said to be altruistically pure. The rest-- the celebs, the philanthropists, the corporations -- would like the world to know that they care. Is that so bad?

Witness the cynicism shown during the recent rash of "Pay it forward" coffee purchases during the holidays at Starbucks. Some bah humbug bloggers suspect that Starbucks employees started the whole chain --purchasing a free cup for coffee for someone in line at Starbucks so that person would purchase coffee for the next, and so on. Oh, the humanity!

A very clever and effective big-city promotion for Starbucks was its "Red Cup on Cars" campaign. A red magnetic coffee cup was affixed to the top of a car. Each good Samaritan pointing out the coffee cup (or even rushing to remove it and give it to the driver) received a $5 gift card as a reward, and Starbucks received some great mentions on major market TV stations.