German Car Scene

MINI AND AGENT PROVOCATEUR RAISE $73,000 FOR AIDS RESEARCH

Posted 1st July, 2008 in Mini | Leave a comment

A MINI Clubman designed inside and out as a pleasure palace by British avant-garde lingerie maker Agent Provocateur for the annual Life Ball charity in Vienna, Austria, has been sold on eBay for $73,388 (e45,000).

This is the eighth year MINI has supported the event with a vehicle which was subsequently sold on the on-line auction company’s site. In total the cars have raised in excess of $495,726.94c (e304,002) to go towards HIV/AIDS research.

When the 2008 on-line auction came to a close on June 15, there had been some frenetic bidding, with keen prospective buyers from all corners of the globe fighting it out in cyberspace for the opportunity to get their hot hands on perhaps the raunchiest MINI yet.

With 77 bids, this year’s car was one of the most in demand. In previous years cars designed and decorated by fashion icons such as Donatella Versace, Renzo Rosso from Diesel and Gianfranco Ferré have been the belles of the ball.

The MINI Clubman featured a souped up exterior in Agent Provocateur signature pink and black colours complete with pink flashing lights, while inside it was designed to be the most seductive prison cell on wheels with hand to wall cuffs and blacked out windows replete with bars.

Worldwide measures to combat HIV/AIDS are one of the main elements of the corporate and social policy pursued by the BMW Group. The company’s involvement in South Africa is particularly wide-ranging, covering a comprehensive workplace programme for employees and their families, plus a number of different projects in the local communities and further afield.

The BMW Group is also committed to fighting this pandemic in other affected countries, such as Thailand and China. The company’s membership of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GBC) underlines its long-term commitment at its individual locations.

“By supporting Vienna’s Life Ball, the MINI brand is going its own way and making its own very individual contribution to the fight against this auto-immune disease”, says Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, Head of Brand Communication MINI.

“The Life Ball brings the pandemic back into the public’s awareness each year in a very emotional way, and the auction of each uniquely designed MINI produces a major financial contribution to projects aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS.”

Half of the proceeds will be donated to national projects in Austria. The other half will be used to benefit international projects, with allocation of funds regulated by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).

[Source: MINI]