Aguilera Raises Awareness of Hunger Issue by Appearing in PSA, Advertising, Posters and Online Campaign -
FromHungerToHope.com Louisville, KY, July 15, 2009 - Yum! Brands announced today that five-time Grammy Award winner Christina Aguilera is giving hunger a powerful voice by becoming the global spokesperson for World Hunger Relief.
Aguilera will help raise awareness of the hunger issue this fall by appearing in a new public service announcement, advertising and posters made possible by KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. She will also get the message out by appearing on the World Hunger Relief web site, FromHungertoHope.com, and in other online hunger relief efforts.
Global hunger has reached epic proportions this year with more than 1 billion people starving around the world due to the convergence of the global economic slowdown; high food prices; increased competition for products that produce energy; severe droughts and floods due to climate change; and increasing demand from growing economies in Asia and South America.
"It's unacceptable a child dies every six seconds somewhere around the world from hunger," said Aguilera. "By lending my voice for World Hunger Relief, I hope to raise awareness about the issue and move people from hunger to hope."
Yum! Brands annual World Hunger Relief campaign is the world's largest private sector hunger relief effort to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds to benefit the United Nation's World Food Programme (WFP) and other hunger relief agencies. More than 36,000 company and franchised KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food restaurants located in more than 110 countries participate in the World Hunger Relief.
"We are extremely excited about Christina's passion to join the fight against hunger," said David Novak, Chairman and CEO, Yum! Brands, Inc. "Christina's global iconic status will raise tremendous attention to this critical issue, and more importantly, will save millions of lives."
Since the World Hunger Relief launched in 2007, more than one million of the Company's employees, franchisees and their families have volunteered more than nine million hours to aid hunger relief efforts in communities worldwide. The effort has raised $36 million for the WFP and other hunger relief organizations and is helping to provide approximately 160 million meals and save the lives of about 4 million people in remote corners of the world, where hunger is the most prevalent.
At the Clinton Global Initiative last year, Yum! Brands pledged to do the following over the next few years: raise and donate at least $80 million to help WFP and others provide 200 million meals for hungry school children in developing countries; donate 20 million hours of hunger relief volunteer service in the communities in which it operates; donate $200 million worth of its prepared food to hunger agencies in the United States and use the Company's marketing clout to generate awareness of the hunger problem, and convince others to become part of the solution.
Yum! and its brands have been committed to fighting hunger for more than a decade by donating more than $46 million of prepared food annually to the underprivileged in the United States. Since the company went public in 1997, it has donated more than $500 million of its food to hunger relief agencies in the U.S.
Yum! Brands, Inc., (NYSE:YUM) based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants, with more than 36,000 restaurants in over 110 countries and territories. The company is ranked #239 on the Fortune 500 List, with revenues in excess of $11 billion in 2008. Four of the company’s restaurant brands - KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver's are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, Mexican style food and quick service seafood categories, respectively. Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands system opened more than four new restaurants each day of the year, making it the leaders in international retail development. The company has consistently been recognized for its reward and recognition culture, diversity leadership, community giving, and consistent shareholder returns. For the second year, the company launched the world's largest private sector hunger relief effort in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme and other hunger relief agencies. To date, this effort is helping to save approximately 4 million people in remote corners of the world, where hunger is most prevalent.
Christina Aguilera is one of the most successful recording artists of the past decade, selling more than 42 million records worldwide. Aguilera's 1999 self-titled debut album spawned three #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Aguilera has won four GRAMMY Awards and one Latin GRAMMY Award.
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency and the United Nations frontline agency for hunger solutions. In 2009, WFP aims to feed 105 million people in 74 countries.