Kenneth Cole making life’s tough issues his own.

These days, it’s like more and more companies and brands aren’t just releasing blogs; some are taking a position on any globally important issue, or, to hell with it, all of the world’s important issues. Such as global warming, child labor, inner city poverty, nuclear waste, etc. How do you do this? Well, just do a blog. Even if the topics don’t have anything to do with what your company is selling. And why should it? Opinions, especially when they come from people you know are happily read by people. And, it makes you feel somehow you are becoming more aware and are contributing to a cause.

But you can’t just do a blog. You need to have a known voice, a staff of writers people inherently trust, complete avoidance of your usual marketing messaging and plan to keep it up for a long time. If you communicate with a human purpose, people will be open for what you have to say.

Now Kenneth Cole has done just that. His release of the http://awearnessblog.com/ Awearnessblog is a prime example of branding social and environmental issues with the help of celebs such as Joe Pantoliano and others. The blog entries are actually well produced, seem researched and leaves the sponsor’s business out of the picture for credibility sake.

Critics may say it’s just a really smart way of branding social issues for your own sake, or decode it as a PR stunt where everyone wins with little effect on the issues discussed, but rather only on the philanthropist image of the blog’s sponsor. Be that as it may, philanthropy has always also been about raising awareness, getting people to donate time and money to a cause, which inherently follows the same key steps as PR and advertising for products. At the very least, it will be interesting to see how this spawn of the blog phenomenon will fare in the future.