United Nations Foundation and Virgin Produced Take Social Good to New Heights

Social good reaches new heights – 35,000 feet – this month as the United Nations Foundation and Virgin Produced announced a new partnership. The collaboration highlights key global issues – malaria prevention and energy access – through dynamic public service announcements in the LIFE block on the Virgin Produced Channel on board all Virgin America flights.

“We believe everyone has a role to play in making a safer, healthier, and better future a reality. We hope these PSAs inspire the millions of people, from mothers to political leaders, who fly with Virgin America to learn more and take action,” said Kathy Calvin, CEO of the UN Foundation.  “Virgin Produced, like the UN Foundation, dares to think big. By partnering with an organization that too dreams of a world where families and children don’t die from a single mosquito bite and people everywhere have access to clean, renewable, sustainable energy we can make real progress.”

Virgin America flyers will be able to watch and learn more about the Sustainable Energy for All initiative led by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The energy focused PSA began running on June 1 timed to the historic Rio+20 United Nations summit focused on sustainable development.  In May, flyers watched and learned about the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets, a grassroots campaign to prevent malaria in Africa.

“Most say it’s about the destination, at Virgin it’s about the journey,” said Jason Felts, CEO of Virgin Produced. “Since inception earlier this year, our Virgin Produced channel has worked to ensure the journey is filled with fresh, funny and innovative content and now we are thrilled to be highlighting social good as well. Virgin America is known for reinventing travel and the UN Foundation is known for its innovative campaigns, using Virgin Produced’s creative approach to media to push the envelope in global philanthropy is a natural fit.”

For more information on UN Foundation campaigns and initiatives and to watch the PSAs, visit http://www.unfoundation.org/blog/social-good-at-35000-feet.html.

Tweet this: #SocialGood hits new heights w/ @VIRGINproduced & @UNFoundation.

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Background:
The Sustainable Energy for All initiative calls on all sectors of society to achieve universal energy access, improve energy efficiency and increase the use of renewable energy by 2030. The UN Foundation is partnering with the UN on this investment for our collective futures, providing support to raise global awareness, engage stakeholders worldwide, and create the future we want — energy that is accessible, cleaner and more efficient.
Inspired by sports columnist Rick Reilly, hundreds of thousands of people have joined the Nothing But Nets campaign that was created by the United Nations Foundation in 2006. Campaign partners include the National Basketball Association’s NBA Cares, the people of The United Methodist Church, and Major League Soccer’s MLS W.O.R.K.S. It only costs $10 to provide an insecticide-treated bed net that can prevent this deadly disease. To date, Nothing But Nets has raised over $40 million to distribute more than 6 million insecticide-treated nets to families throughout Africa.

About The United Nations Foundation
The United Nations Foundation builds public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and broadens support for the United Nations through advocacy and public outreach. Through innovative campaigns and initiatives, the Foundation connects people, ideas, and resources to help the UN solve global problems. The Foundation was created in 1998 as a U.S. public charity by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner and now is supported by global corporations, foundations, governments, and individuals. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.

About Virgin Produced
Virgin Produced serves as the film and television development, packaging and production arm of the Virgin Group.  Led by co-founders, CEO Jason Felts and CCO Justin Berfield, Virgin Produced is breaking old Hollywood models by providing a collaborative environment that embraces talent so they can best create and inspire.  With an equal focus on television and film, Virgin Produced in its inaugural year, gained swift traction on the film front with their multi-year first look deal with Relativity Media, claiming two back to back #1 box-office successes with “Limitless” and “Immortals.” Unique only to Virgin Produced, its content is cross-marketed to consumers across the brand’s transportation, mobile, health club, hotel, retail, and social media platforms.  Virgin Produced plans to produce 6-8 films over the next two years with several films in various stages of pre and post production.  Visit Virgin Produced Online at www.virginproduced.com.

About Virgin America
Headquartered in California, Virgin America is a new domestic airline that offers guests attractive fares and a host of innovative features aimed at reinventing air travel.  Virgin America’s principle base of operations is San Francisco International Airport’s (SFO) sleek and sustainable new Terminal Two (T2) – the first LEED® Gold-certified airport terminal in the U.S. Known for beautifully-designed planes with WiFi, power outlets and touch-screen entertainment at every seat, Virgin America has swept the travel awards since its 2007 launch, including being named “Best U.S. Airline” in Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards and Travel + Leisure’sWorld’s Best Awards.  The airline’s new aircraft offer interactive in-flight entertainment systems and power outlets near every seat. For more: www.virginamerica.com