Gaga drops Facebook for charity

Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and Usher are among stars signing off social networking like Facebook and Twitter in assistance of singer Alicia Keys' charity. auto insurance Florida Auto

The campaign, termed Digital Existence Sacrifice, will elevate cash on Tuesday - Planet Aids Day - for Retain a Child Alive, which supports households affected by HIV/Aids in Africa and India.

The stars have filmed "last tweet and testament" videos.

They're going to sign yet again online when the charity raises $1 million.

Their videos will appear in adverts displaying them lying in coffins to symbolize what the campaign calls their digital deaths.

Lady Gaga is greatly favored on Facebook with nearly 24 million fans, plus a lot more than seven million followers on Twitter.

Grammy-winning singer Keys, 29, said it was "really crucial and super-cool to utilize mediums that we naturally are on".

"It's so crucial to shock you for the degree of waking up," the R&B singer said. "It's not that people don't care or it really is not too people don't need to do something, it really is that they never thought of it quite like that."

The campaign also consists of Elijah Wood, Jennifer Hudson, Ryan Seacrest, Kim and Khloe Kardashian, Serena Williams and Keys' husband, rapper-producer Swizz Beatz.

"This is such a direct and immediately mental way and a small sarcastic, you know, of a way to get people to pay attention," said Keys, who has a lot more than 2.6 million followers on Twitter.

Leigh Blake, the president and co-founder of Retain a Child Alive, said: "We're trying to sort of make the remark: 'Why do we care so considerably about the death of one celebrity as opposed to millions and millions of people dying in the place that we're all from?'"

He added he thought Lady Gaga would elevate the cash "all by herself".

"She's got a very, very mobilised fan base and that's beautiful to watch I think (and) she's able to draw their attention to these issues that are very crucial, you know, and that people follow it and act."
Celebrity requests accepted

Keys, who gave birth to her son Egypt very last month, said recruiting celebrities was difficult because of scheduling, but "once I got people around the phone and I was able to paint the concept for them, everybody was in".

She added that no-one refused her request.

Keys is hoping a lot more people, not just famous names, will get involved in the initiative.

"It just doesn't have to be just because you're a celebrity or something like that. It can be anybody."

She added that being mother and wife made her want to assistance others even a lot more.

"As a human being, you deserve to have a chance at existence," she said.