Fashionable SMS fundraising

I originally mentioned this on livinginadigitalworld.com a couple of months back, but it's such a fun idea that I thought it worth mentioning here too.

Reactee is a great online t-shirt site which not only offers shoppers the opportunity to share their views on any subject that takes their fancy through a personalised t-shirt - but takes t-shirt communication to a completely new level by creating clothing that "texts back".

Every Reactee t-shirt displays the wearer's personal slogan plus a keyword and SMS shortcode. Anyone interested in knowing more about the slogan - or the wearer - can text-in the keyword and will automatically receive a response set by the wearer. The responses can be updated as often as the wearer wants, and they receive a notification each time someone texts their t-shirt.

So far, Reactee t-shirt wearers apparently range from those just looking for a personal response ("Am I hot?" seems quite popular) to those wanting to raise awareness of charities or political campaigns. One young Democrat has created an "Obama for President" t-shirt and updates her text response each week with a new reason to support him.

Seems like there could be real potential for charities with their own shortcode services already in-place to replicate the idea in support of their own campaigning or fundraising.