Doh. My bad...
Springtime in London

Strangest charity campaign ever

Lenny_2 Every few months in the US, people are encouraged to wear certain articles of clothing to bring attention to various causes. In October, for example, Americans are asked to wear pink on a certain day and donate money to fight breast cancer. On other days, people are asked to wear jeans to work. Nothing too outlandish.

The same days are set aside in the UK, but nothing as silly as "Red Nose Day."  This Friday, 16 March, Britons are encouraged to wear foam red clown noses. It's part of Comic Relief campaign to raise funds for charities in Britain and Africa.  Students are urged to wear funny hats, big ties, big shoes, and even pajamas to school (the usual British school uniform requirement is waived on Friday). 

And unless you are an American or living under a rock, there's no excuse to not know about Red Nose Day. The event has been bashed into our brains on British television, radio, Tube ads, newspapers, magazines and store displays encouraging shoppers to pay 2 Quid for a foam nose that probably cost about 2 Pence to make by some 5-year-old kid in Bangladesh.  The ads all feature various smiling and attractive British celebrities wearing the obligatory Red Nose, as if to say: "They're doing it! Why aren't you? You pathetic prat!" (BritSpeak for idiot).

Midlandslaunch06 I, for one, will NOT be wearing the Red Nose.  Call me a party-pooper, but there is NO WAY i'm going out in public with a nose bigger than the giant honker I was born with.  Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode, where Kramer refused to wear the AIDS ribbon. Nope. Won't do it.  I will not wear the clown nose.   First of all, clowns scare me.  Second, I fail to see how wearing a foam red nose will save a starving child in Ethiopia. I'd rather hand over my £2 to a poor kid in East London.  And how much money was spent on this huge ad campaign? I bet that cash could have built quite a few schools and clinics in Africa...or inner city London.

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