Perry Ellis to help clean up the Gulf oil spill, by restricting their donation to $10,000

Many designers are stepping up and doing their bit to clean up the Gulf (Kenneth Cole for one). Now you can add Perry Ellis to the list with the all American brand launching a new initiative called Project Beach to raise awareness and funds for the recovery of the Gulf region. Taking to the web, the Perry Ellis brand isn’t asking you to buy a t-shirt another sort of trinket, instead they are taking the world wide web – Facebook to be exact. In a fundraiser with the National Wildlife Federation, Project Beach will donate money to the NWF’s Gulf Oil Spill Restoration Fund for every person that ‘likes’ the Perry Ellis Facebook page.

“The coast has always been home for the Perry Ellis brand. Whether winter or summer, our creative team takes inspiration from the beach, and as a Miami-based company, we appreciate life on the coast every day. We’ve also used the beach as a backdrop for our ad campaigns for decades,” said Brett Dean, chief marketing officer of Perry Ellis International.

Mind you, when you read the “fine print” (aka the rest of the release) it says:

For each of the first 10,000 new “likes,” Perry Ellis will donate $1 to NWF’s Gulf Oil Spill Restoration Fund.

Really? One whole dollar? So with 27,519 people ‘linking’ Perry Ellis on Facebook as of a few minutes ago, the company only has to fork over about $2.75.

And then, there’s another one that says:

Perry Ellis will donate up to a maximum of $10,000

On the flip side, Perry Ellis are also raising awareness for Project Beach by shooting their spring/summer 2011 advertising campaign down on the Gulf Coast with their upcoming New York Fashion Show show to recognize the NWF’s Gulf Coast restoration work. But come on! Why not save the money that it will take to fly down to the Gulf with a whole crew, and donate that money too?

If you want Perry Ellis to fork out more than $2.75 (so far) to the NWT, head over to his Facebook fan page and ‘Like’ them now. Or better yet, donate some money yourself.