Cause Marketing Campaign Doesn't Score

Just last week,  Mastercard announced a campaign to donate 10,000 meals to hungry children in Latin America and the Caribbean through the United Nations World Food Programme each time Argentine forward Lionel Messi or Brazilian forward Neymar Jr. scored a goal in any official tournament. Although Mastercard had planned to continue the campaign for two years, it has now halted it, just five days in, because of an intense social media backlash, accusing Mastercard of trivializing hunger.  One typical Tweet said: "I guess any goalkeeper who stops them from scoring should be branded wicked cause he just stopped over 10,000 children from eating."

Reacting quickly to the criticism, Mastercard is now planning to simply donate a million meals, regardless of the number of goals scored.