Virtual hug, real chocolate
Troops on border
Photo: AP
‘Virtual hug’ campaign supports IDF troops
Elite Strauss, Heritage Affinity Services team up in Web campaign to let people around world send support to IDF troops with ‘virtual hug,’ real chocolate bar
New York-based credit card company Heritage Affinity Services (HAS)
has teamed with Israeli chocolate company Strauss-Elite to sweeten the lives of IDF soldiers as they cross the Lebanese border. They launched their "Send a Hug" internet campaign to give Israel lovers who cannot be in Israel the opportunity to show affection to the soldiers.
The campaign website allows supporters to send their "hugs" for free by writing personalized messages to Israeli soldiers which will be given distributed along with gifts of Elite chocolate. The hugs will be distributed as soon as the company reaches their goal of collecting 100,000 hugs. That is not expected to take long, since 75,000 messages were submitted within the first week of the campaign. All messages are posted to the website, so that non-soldiers can read them as well.
HAS, the campaign's parent company has also recently launched a credit card in support of the Israel economy, which can be applied for on the website.
The HAS Advantage VISA® Platinum card allows card holders to donate a portion of every purchase to support the Israeli charities of their choice, in addition to offering points which can redeemed for flights with El Al and Judaica merchandise.
