Raking in the dough

Bristol Palin has signed on with Single Source Speakers. On its website she's described as someone who "took the country by storm practically overnight when she was introduced to Americans during the 2008 presidential campaign," and has become a well-paid speaker. In 2009, she formed BSMP LLC, a lobbying, public relations and political consulting firm.

In December of last year she bought a five-bedroom, 3,900-square-foot house in Maricopa, Ariz., south of Phoenix, for $172,000.

And according to recent reports, she was paid close to $340,000 for promoting abstinence. She apparently was paid $262,500 in 2009 from the tax-exempt The Candie's Foundation, a division of the apparel brand Candie's, which a unit of Iconix Brand Group (ICON). A subsequent report added another $70,000 (for 2010) to Bristol's kitty.

The Candie's Foundation's abstinence project

The money was payment for Palin's video appearances promoting The Candie's Foundation abstinence project. Interestingly enough, at the same time The Candie's Foundation was enhancing the lifestyle of Bristol Palin, it dished out only $35,000 -- $25,000 to the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, and $10,000 to the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy -- to organizations that actually deal with the problem of teen pregnancy.

In one of her Pause Before You Play abstinence videos, Palin is paired with The Situation (Michael Sorrentino), a star of Jersey Shore (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyWKlxNAh30&feature=player_emb edded).

Lylah M. Alphonse, a staffer at Shine.yahoo.com recently reported that, "The tax-exempt, non-profit Candie's Foundation received grants and contributions of $1,695,632 in 2009, according to tax records obtained by research firm Guidestar.org and first published on the blog Palingate. That's up (way up) from $459,098 the year before."

Alphonse also reported that the tax records showed that "Foundation president Neil Cole earned a cool million ... and CFO Warren Clamen and general counsel Andrew Tarshis each pulled down $400,000 - and that doesn't include thousands of dollars in bonuses and millions more in restricted stock options."

According to Forbes' Elisa Doucette, Neil Cole, Warren Clamen and Andrew Tarshis are key officers for Iconix Brand Group LLC, the parent company of the Candie's clothing line and a related business/organization of The Candie's Foundation. According to financial documents (http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2010/134/165/2010-134165184 -06b511df-9.pdf) released on the web, Neil Cole is the President/Founder, Warren Clamen is the CFO, and Andrew Tarshis is the General Counsel [of Iconix Brand Group, LLC]. Also revealed in this document is their reported compensation. Between the organization's compensation, related organizations compensation and estimated compensation these three 'pulled in' $12,835,605."

Candie's Cole is apparently no stranger to controversy. "In 1999, while CEO of the fashion brand Candie's, Inc., Cole was accused by the SEC of using 'fraudulent accounting practices designed to improve Candie's publicly reported financial condition,' Alphonse reported. In 2003, without admitting or denying the SEC allegations, Cole paid a $75,000 civil fine and agreed to 'cease and desist from violating... the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,' according to Forbes. Cole launched the New York-based Candie's Foundation in 2001, while the SEC's investigation was ongoing."

The Candie's Foundation's mission is "To educate America's youth about the devastating consequences of teen pregnancy through celebrity PSA (public service announcement) campaigns and initiatives."

At Jezebel.com, Irin Carmon pointed out that "Most years, the foundation also spends a big chunk of money on a celebrity-studded gala called Event to Prevent. In 2009 this was a Town Hall meeting that cost $770,240. The foundation asked the IRS for an extension this year on reporting further details, but the 2007 filing shows that that year, the event generated a loss of $334,761."

So, why did The Candie's Foundation, which appears to be a questionable entity in its own right, decide that Bristol Palin, who had at one time told Fox News that abstinence was "not realistic at all," was now sufficiently on board with abstinence and was celebrity enough for it to rain down money on her?

According to a statement posted on its website (http://www.candiesfoundation.org/index.html), "For ten years, The Candie's Foundation has been working to prevent teen pregnancy by producing and funding celebrity-driven print, television, radio and online public service announcements. Ms. Palin was compensated for her work with the foundation, which included appearing in video and print PSAs, two town hall meetings, and numerous media interviews.

"The message of the foundation about teen pregnancy prevention has generated more than ONE BILLION media impressions - tremendous reach for any teen pregnancy prevention campaign. We know that Ms. Palin's work has had a positive effect on teens. In a recent independent national survey of 1,000 teens that compared a Bristol Palin PSA with those of another national teen pregnancy organization that use non-famous teens, more than twice as many teens (57% vs. 27%) said Bristol's PSA 'got my attention', three times as many (41% vs. 11%) said it was 'powerful', and more than twice as many (38% vs. 16%) said it was 'memorable'.

"Bristol Palin is one of dozens of celebrities who has worked with the foundation. She has been a courageous and powerful partner to the foundation as we attempt to discourage teen pregnancy."

You can watch three of Bristol Palin's PSA's at The Candie's Foundation website.

Columnist Froma Harrop had a different take on both The Candie's Foundation and the Candie's clothing line. The nonprofit Candie's Foundation "is run by the executives of Candie's, a line of slutty apparel marketed to females age 7 to young adult. Some ads for the brand were so degrading that even Cosmopolitan magazine refused to publish them," Harrop wrote in a recent column distributed by Creators Syndicate (http://www.al.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/as-american-culture-h urtles-into-decline/d43dea0eb779499f849def97b83eb384).

"One Candie's promo showed Lil' Kim in a blonde wig and yellow bikini dancing above a group of nuns," Harrop wrote. "Another had actress Alyssa Milano opening a medicine cabinet full of condoms and a bottle of Candie's fragrance. The new Candie's brand video shows Fergie thrusting her cleavage at a young man holding a long-lens camera."

In a story at Bnet.com titled "Did Bristol Palin Really Generate '1 Billion' Media Hits for Candie's Teen Sex Effort?," Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek and a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools, raised questions about Candie's claim that the Palin ad actually reached as many people as the foundation claimed: "Candie's claim ... would make the Palin effort one of the most successful campaigns ever aired, given the resources applied to it. On YouTube, Palin's ad [with The Situation] has been watched by only 777,512 people. Many of those views were not from vulnerable teens but from celebrity gawkers, agog at one of the least-convincing ad performances of the year... ."

In an earlier story, Bnet's Jim Edwards provided "a breakdown of the Foundation's finances from the most recent disclosure available: Grants received: $1.7 million, Grants paid out: $35,000, Expenses: $598,184, PSAs: $57,589, Media buys: $165,000, Bristol Palin: $262,500." The foundation's website proudly pointed out that it has used Fergie, Hayden Panettiere, Beyoncé, Ciara, Jenny McCarthy, Vanessa Minnillo, Ashley Tisdale, Hilary Duff, Ashlee Simpson, Usher, Rachel Bilson, and Teddy Geiger in its abstinence campaigns.

As the Single Source Speakers' bio pointed out, Bristol Palin has certainly taken "the country by storm." And the thunder and lightning she arouses will likely resound for some time to come.

At Shine.yahoo.com, one commenter wittily pointed out: "Bristol Palin and the Situation doing a PSA for safe sex? That's like taking investment advice from Bernie Madoff."

However, as Forbes' Doucette observed (http://blogs.forbes.com/elisadoucette/2011/04/06/bristol-palins-c ompensation-seven-times-candies-foundation-donations-to-charities /), "It is frustrating everyone is running out into the streets screaming about Palin's compensation when the thing we SHOULD be furious about is the organization itself.

"Accepting donations from the public that are not intended for donations or grants, but instead celebrity media campaigns.

"The whole situation is a big reprehensible pile of disgusting information that makes me certain of one thing: I'm not going to be writing any checks to The Candie's Foundation or buying any 'sassy sandals' from Candie's anytime soon."