Are we being bombarded with celebrities supporting charities and their corporate benefactors?

Gilda Kirkpatrick and her pink sculpture.

From mental health to prostate, to breasts, climate change, sick children and the animals, no cause seems to be untouched by the hand of celebrity.

Lucy Lawless has even taken to wearing her cause celebre message emblazoned across her chest in a bid to get John Key to "sign on", all the while raising attention for Greenpeace, and by default, herself.

It's a mutually beneficial partnership. Charities need celebrities and vice versa. Much has been written about this synergy but when corporate benevolence gets thrown in to the mix is it right for us to adopt a more cynical viewpoint?

The Breast Cancer Foundation is a cause very close to my heart. My beloved grandmother Vesna passed away from breast cancer and I have always felt a strong need to do anything in my power to help conquer the disease.

As such, I have offered my Spy column to the Breast Cancer Foundation throughout the entire month of October (a period they've dubbed "breast cancer action month") to raise attention to the cause and to, hopefully, raise much needed funds.

The charity is a very worthwhile one and I am proud to support it. So too are the charity's ambassadors like Kerre Woodham, Jude Dobson, Margaret Foster, Maree Bowden, Sara Tetro, Katrina Grant, Adrienne Winkelmann and Denise L'Estrange-Corbet, whose passion for the cause was evident at a function recently where Rachel Hunter launched her designer range of T-shirts in partnership with The Warehouse for the Breast Cancer Foundation.

But one of the Foundation's latest initiatives has me querying whether we've gone too far in the bid to incorporate celebrity endorsement on any campaign that boosts the celeb's image and the corporate feel-good factor. How beneficial is it to the cause, really?

Bostik Blu-Tack, a product I readily admit I haven't used in years, has jumped on the bandwagon to help support the Breast Cancer Foundation and ultimately sell more products.

The press release tells me that each week throughout October, New Zealanders have the chance to bid on celebrity art creations moulded from Bostik Blu-Tack Pink. The pink art sculptures are being auctioned on Trade Me to support the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation which will receive 20c towards an overall total donation of $10,000 by Bostik and Croxley Stationery on behalf of New Zealanders who purchase the product.

The charity has invited celebrities to participate including L'Estrange-Corbet, Leah Panapa, April Ieremia, Josephine Grierson, Janet Wilson, Sally Ridge, Julie Christie, Kate Hawkesby, Katrina Hobbs and Aja Rock.

This week you can bid on art sculptures by Lana Coc-Kroft, Miriama Smith and Gilda Kilpatrick, who has chosen to signify the ancient symbol of healing. Check it out at www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=246839517. At the time of writing this blog, Kirkpatrick's sculpture was sitting on a bid of $10.50.

Who will buy these artworks, and are they best way to attract funds to the charity? Or is it all just a fun way to draw attention to the cause? Am I being too cynical to suggest we are sitting in a pool of corporate benevolence overload? When will the backlash begin - where we no longer need celebrities to mould phallic-looking blobs of pink guck to promote a corporate product and raise money for a cause that could probably just do with real women telling their real life stories?

Rachel Glucina