Those celebrities who died a "digital death" to raise money for an AIDS charity last week are no longer dead.
The organizers of Alicia Keys’ “Keep a Child Alive” announced on Monday that the campaign has reached the $1,000,000 mark in donations — meaning Ryan Seacrest, Kim Kardashian and the rest of those who vowed to stay off Twitter and Facebook until their goal are free to tweet and status update at their normal, annoying levels:
With your help we raised over $1,000,000 to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. Your generous donations will help bring critical care and medicine to the millions affected by this horrible disease. But so many more still need help. Please continue to BUY LIFE — the one thing none of us can alive without.
The campaign got off to a slow start, raising under $100,000 during the first 24 hours last Wednesday, as the “dead” celebrities were not supposed to use Twitter and Facebook, during the fundraising — sacrificing the chance to solicit donations from their 30 million-plus followers.
"The world's top celebrities are sacrificing their digital lives to give real life to millions of people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India," the campaign initially stated. "That means no more Twitter or Facebook updates from any of them. No more knowing where they are, what they had for dinner, or what interesting things are happening in their lives. From here on out, they're dead. Kaput. Finished."
Kardashian, Seacrest, Serena Williams and Elijah Wood all took part in the campaign — many posing "dead" in caskets for the cause and recording video statements before their figurative demise.
Some did not stay "dead," though. Williams, for instance, broke her silence to ask fans to “text SERENA to 90999!” for the campaign — and not to miss her upcoming appearances on the Home Shopping Network:
@SerenaWilliams is digitally dead & needs your help! #BuyLife text SERENA to 90999! Don't forget Serena will be on HSN on Monday & Tuesday alive & well!
@serenawilliams will be on HSN: December 7th 12am-2am 10am-12pm 2pm-3pm 5pm-7pm 10-11pm but will not be tweeting until the #BuyLife Campaign is over!
The campaign also put a $10 minimum on donations — a figure that might have been too much to ask their younger fans.
It's not clear whether or not the celebrities themselves kicked in late-hour donations for the cause. A representative for the campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Whatever the case, more than $1 million was raised for a worthy cause, and some of the world's chattiest celebrities were forced to shut up for nearly a week.
Everybody wins!
