The Tour de France, Nike, Lance Armstrong, LIVESTRONG, the chalkbot, Twitter, text messaging and celebrities - this is big and there's a lot to your arms around, maybe too much.

However, the more I read, the more I engaged, the more clear it became. The pieces started working together. This is big and what makes it work for me is that it's organic and it's real. The stories and photos are from people just like me who know someone affected by cancer - moms, dads, brothers, sisters, friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and this list could go on and on.

It didn't take long for me to register, although reluctant to create another user i.d. and password. Then I typed the name of a friend into the form for the chalkbot to post on a mountain road in France. I was engaged and participating in less than 15 minutes.

IMHO, this is an example of a cause marketing program with the potential to generate deep emotional ties from mass audiences and influence how we as a community think about an issue and how we as consumers think about a brand.