Those hippies from Vermont continue to lead the way with social media marketing innovation (and social justice issues) with their new campaign for World Fair Trade Day.

via Mashable –

Ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s is asking users to donate their spare Twitter characters in honor of World Fair Trade Day on May 14.

Earlier this week, Ben & Jerry’s launched a Twitter application that squeezes a message and link about World Fair Trade Day in the leftover characters of one’s tweets — i.e., if your tweet is 30 characters, the remaining 110 will contain a message about World Fair Trade Day and a link to more information, like so:

For users, it’s a simple way to spread awareness about a worthy cause, and a clever marketing tactic on Ben & Jerry’s end.