IF THERE is one thing celebrities are good at, it is to rally for a good cause.

Not all of them may be the greatest of singers or actors, but when it comes to creating a buzz for charity, there is no beating them at the game.

Erm, the Kardashians, anyone?

They promote, support and campaign for various noble causes with such gusto that people have no choice but to take heed, which is a good thing, actually.

Such unwavering support from fans is what the people behind the AIDSAware Campaign in Malaysia are hoping for.

Organised by ruumzcauses in support of PT Foundation (a non-profit organisation which provides HIV education, prevention, care and support programmes for the marginalised communities most affected by HIV/AIDS), the AIDSAware Campaign seeks to increase HIV/AIDS awareness among young people and Malaysians in general.

Forty two celebrities, including Datuk Sheila Majid, Sazzy Falak, Aishah Sinclair, Joey G. and Daphne Iking, have pledged their support to the campaign which aims to collect 13,000 photo messages on HIV/AIDS prevention and non-discrimination by the end of this year.

You can check out the supportive messages uploaded by various people at http://aidsaware.ruumz.com, and upload your own message there, too.

Unlike our Malaysian celebrities who are making noise on the Internet to be heard, their Hollywood counterparts are hoping that silence would speak louder than words … or Tweets, to be precise.

Kim is digitally dead today.

Social media heavyweights such as Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian have pledged to sign off their Twitter and Facebook account for the whole of World AIDS Day (that’s today!).

This is to benefit Alicia’s Keep a Child Alive Foundation, with hopes to reach its US$1mil fundraising goal. Once they meet the target, these celebrities will log in again.

Other celebs who have pledged to join the cause are Jennifer Hudson, Khloe Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest and Serena Williams.

Check out their respective Twitter pages to see the final tweet they put up last night before plunging to their one-day “digital deaths”.

Alicia's asking you to buy lives.

Alicia told the Associate Press: “It’s really important and super-cool to use the mediums that we are naturally on. It’s so important to shock you to the point of waking up. It’s not that people don’t care or it’s not that people don’t want to do something, it’s that they never thought of it quite like that.”

It is also wonderful to note that not all celebrities wait until the World AIDS Day to work on spreading awareness on the disease. They do it all year long and make HIV/AIDS one of the major campaigns in their celebrity portfolio.

Apart from distancing herself from her 7.2 million Twitter and 24 million Facebook followers (only for today, phew), Lady Gaga has also been actively promoting the M.A.C Viva Glam 2010 campaign with singer Cyndi Lauper.

The Viva Glam campaign, which previously featured celebrities like Eve, Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliot, Fergie and many more, began more than 15 years ago and is one of the most successful worldwide HIV/AIDS campaigns around.

Old school supermodel Linda Evangelista, who is a big supporter of the Viva Glam campaign, also plays an active role in promoting the works of amFAR (The American Foundation for AIDS Research) and has helped raised funds to support people living with HIV/AIDS.

Meanwhile, celebrities like Janet Jackson prefer to use their talents to fight for causes they believe in.

In 2007, Janet wrote the song Together Again in which she sung about losing her friends to AIDS. She even donated a portion of the proceeds from sales of the CD single to amFAR.

Talent or no talent, celebrities often come in droves when it’s time to show their support for charity, especially for any HIV/AIDS related causes. Well, what can we say … good for them.

Sharm says: While it’s not always a good idea to emulate celebrities, this might just be the one time we all should. Now, where’s my red ribbon?