Story highlights
- Williams will shoot up to 100 videos for Kraft's "Golden Voice of Love" campaign
- Each #VoiceOfLove tweet will trigger a donation of 100 boxes to Feeding America
- Williams catapulted to YouTube and Reddit notoriety in 2011
Ted Williams, the former homeless man with the golden voice who hit YouTube fame in early 2011, is back for a Twitter-based Valentine's Day campaign for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.
From February 12 to 14, Williams will shoot up to 100 videos for the brand's "Golden Voice of Love" campaign. The videos will feature Williams applying his sonorous tones to reads of selected tweets using the hashtag "#VoiceOfLove," which Twitter users can send to their paramours. (@kraftmacncheese will tweet messages to the winners to notify them.)
As with past programs Williams has executed for the brand, there's a philanthropic component as well: Each #VoiceOfLove tweet will trigger a donation of 100 boxes to Feeding America, a homeless advocacy group. Kraft will give up to 100,000 boxes.
Williams catapulted to YouTube and Reddit notoriety in January 2011 after Columbus Dispatch videographer Doral Chenoweth II filmed a brief interview with Williams, who was panhandling at the side of a highway. Mainstream media picked up on the video and Williams appeared on CBS's The Early Show, among other places.
Williams was soon given a chance to cash in on his sudden fame when Kraft tapped him to do voiceovers for its Macaroni & Cheese ads. Though Williams faded from view since then, Kraft continued to use him as spokesman.
Last month Entertainment Tonight also did a profile of Williams, who had suffered a few setbacks over the last year, in which he was shown to be sober and living with his girlfriend in a nice condo.