Hershey’s Kisses is donating part of its ad budget to GoFundMe campaigns

You might see fewer ads for Hershey’s Kisses this time of year than usual, but it’s for good reason.

Since Nov. 10 and until Dec. 22, a portion of the money that would otherwise have been spent on advertising Hershey’s Kisses has been diverted to help GoFundMe campaigns cross the finish line. Specifically, the brand is helping out family and friends seeking to reconnect over the holidays to meet their travel cost fundraising goals.

GoFundMe has also set up a landing page dedicated to Hershey’s “Sweet Reunions” campaign to amplify other fundraisers that are seeking support, many of which go unfunded every year as the crowdfunding platform gets more popular and campaigns have a harder time standing out from the crowd. Hershey has also created some online videos to promote the cause, featuring the kinds of reunions it is hoping to facilitate.

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Hershey would not give an exact dollar figure for its donation, or what portion of its marketing budget it represented, but described it as a “generous portion” that would fund up to 10 campaigns. However, the “Sweet Reunions” campaign page on GoFundMe shows that, so far, it has donated $5,430 to four campaigns, which include flying a young man pursuing a job in the Northwest Territories back to his family in Toronto, helping a soon-to-be uncle travel from Chile to Montreal for the birth of his niece and helping an international student fly back to Mexico to see her mother and grandmother for the first time in three years.

The Hershey’s Kisses holiday campaign ties into “Life Is Sweet,” a Hershey masterbrand platform the company launched earlier this year focused on associating its chocolate products with life’s small-yet-meaningful moments.

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